Why SMBs Should Worry About Data Security

Updated March 3, 2025

Locking The Stable Door Before the Horse Bolts

Running a small business has never been easy. Choosing to what to spend your time and money on is always a trade off. One of the things that we often see companies ‘trading off’ is data security. Smaller businesses look at internet security with an attitude that says “I’m too small for anyone to want to hack”. But that is a dangerous risk to take with your business. You wouldn’t leave your office door unlocked at night, so don’t leave your data unlocked either.

Too Small To Worry About

Losing customer data can be one of the quickest ways to kill a business in 2017. Customer trust is paramount, not to mention any public embarrassment or the financial and legal implications of losing your data.

Taking just the last few years, look at the list of companies that have had their data compromized: Sony, Yahoo, Boeing, Verizon, the IRS, Wendy’s and most recently HBO. While it might be great to see your company join this list of illustrious companies, you probably don’t want it to be because you’ve been hacked… This list shows that even the wealthiest companies can be hit, so everyone needs to be careful.

Okay, that’s enough scaremongering. How can you keep your data safe in 2017?

Stop Bitrot

Bitrot is the computerized version of not cleaning the rust off your padlock. What was once secure will degrade and become weak. To avoid this you need to make sure your website, is kept up to date, you’re updating any plugins, applications or SaaS services you use and that you’re changing your passwords regularly.

Backup your Backups

Baby steps at first. If you’re not backing up your data. Do so. We recently heard a story from a small internet business saying that they had been locked out of their own site and were being blackmailed to get access back. Luckily they had a backup and could just restore their site to how it was a few weeks before. If they hadn’t been backing up, they would not have been able to do that.

Save Your Data In Several Places

Having all your data stored in one place is a bad idea. Make sure you’re storing data in different locations. Not just online, using cloud-based solutions, but also in different physical locations. For example backup your site onto a portable hard drive once every couple of months and put it in a secure place at home. Then, if the office is broken into, or catches fire, you haven’t lost everything.

Data Security 101

As more and more businesses become reliant on the internet and internet services data security becomes more important. Getting ahead of the game regarding data security could save you thousands of dollars in potentially lost business.

Is your data security on point? We’d love to hear how you make sure your data is kept secure.