Small businesses are not immune to attacks

“Why would a cybercriminal be interested in my small business?“.

It’s a question we’ve heard a few times. It’s not uncommon for small businesses to mistakenly believe that they are unattractive to cybercriminal organisations and hackers.

On the contrary, hackers and cybercriminals are increasingly turning their attention to small and medium-sized businesses with limited IT resources. In fact, around 43% of attacks hit smaller businesses as they are easier targets than large organisations. Small and medium-sized businesses are easy targets because they often don’t have the necessary security measures in place.

High demands on data protection and IT security

Alongside the rise of digital attacks, we see cybercriminals’ methods becoming more sophisticated and governments and the EU implementing new and stricter legislation for data security and protection.

You’ve probably already heard of GDPR?

With this development, more pressure is being put on organisations to implement a proactive IT security strategy. This means that IT security is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for all organisations – regardless of size.

Challenges with data security

Without adequate protection, unauthorised persons and criminals can easily gain access to, among other things:

• Passwords
• Sensitive personal information
• Business-critical data
• E-mails

Ransomware

Attacks likeransomwarecan also paralyse a company’s operations by encrypting data and demanding huge ransoms to release your data again.

Needless to say, a successful cyberattack can result in significant financial losses, damage to company reputation and loss of customer trust.

Data security and GDPR

Finally, there are also risks associated with non-compliance with GDPR legislation. If your organisation fails to comply with data security and privacy regulations, it can lead to legal sanctions and heavy fines.

Companies need to make sure they are protecting personal data properly, and then they need to actually document their security measures.

How can you protect your business?

So how can you protect your data? Encryption is one way, but let’s start by explaining what encryption is and what it can do:

What is encryption and data encryption?

When it comes to IT security, we can succinctly define encryption as the process of using encryption algorithms that make data and other information impossible to read and understand without a security key. Was that a bit too abstract? If you already have a good grasp of encryption and what it is, you can easily skip the next section, otherwise we will now elaborate a little further:

Let’s try to make encryption a little more concrete:

Imagine you have an important document in the form of an A4 piece of paper that you don’t want others to read. You have the brilliant idea of tearing the paper into tens of thousands of small pieces, which you then mix together thoroughly.

Without a precise overview of how to put the pieces together, it’s impossible to find out what was written on the paper before you tore it. But, of course, you have instructions that describe exactly what it takes to put all the pieces together correctly.

Decryption: You are in control

You can now give these instructions to the person you want to share the document with. They can then quickly reconstruct the entire paper and read what was written on it. But for everyone else, the many small pieces of paper are completely useless and impossible to understand.

This is what encryption does: it “tears” your data into tiny pieces and shuffles them so that they can’t be read unless you have the precise method to reassemble them correctly. This is where the security key comes in. The safety key is the instructions from our paper metaphor above. The security key is what ensures that only those you want to have access to information can access it.

Of course, the paper metaphor is simplistic and doesn’t fully reflect reality or what happens when we encrypt data and other information. However, it does provide a tangible picture of what encryption is all about.

Encryption of emails

For example, if a hacker were to hack into your email, they would not be able to read your email if it is encrypted. The better encrypted your email or data is, the harder it will be for a hacker to decrypt it.

With solutions like email encryption and email communication, you can protect your messages and ensure that only the intended recipients can read your emails.

Proactive data protection

Encryption is a proactive and fundamental part of modern IT and data security, where only authorised users with the correct key can decrypt and read encrypted data.

So it’s crucial for:

1. Protecting sensitive information such as customer data, financial information and internal documents,

2. to comply with GDPR legislation.

How can encryption help with data security and GDPR compliance? It does so by protecting your data both in transit and at rest. In other words:

• When you send data or a message to an employee over the internet or network, encryption ensures that the data cannot be intercepted and misused by a third party. The data will be encrypted while it is being sent from one user to another.

• When data is stored on a server or device (when it is at ‘rest’), encryption prevents unauthorised access even if the device is lost or stolen.

Investing in data security and encryption protects your organisation against future threats and digital attacks that can cost you dearly.

SOLID IT’s encryption and data security solutions

At SOLID IT, we offer modern encryption tools that are user-friendly and therefore do not require you to have advanced technical knowledge.

1. Encryption with Bitlocker for laptops and mobiles

We implement Bitlocker to encrypt your devices. Bitlocker protects all data on your hard drive by completely encrypting it. Even if a laptop or mobile device is stolen, the encryption prevents unauthorised access to the data.

We also offer Mobile Device Management solutions that ensure you can monitor your organisation’s mobile devices to effectively keep them up to date and wipe them in case of theft.

2. Backup solution for securing data: Are you covered in the event of an accident?

In case of system failure, ransomware attack or accidental deletion, it’s crucial that you have a backup of your data. If you don’t and you lose your data, there’s nothing you can do.

To secure your data, we offer 365 Backup and Keepit Office 365 Backup to ensure regular backups of your data. With a backup, you can quickly restore data from backup. This minimises downtime and ensures business continuity.

3. Encryption and network security with firewall and VPN

We set up firewall and VPN solutions to protect your network from external threats:

• A firewall acts as a barrier between your internal network and the internet.

• A VPN ensures encrypted communication when your employees work remotely.

4. Encryption of email communication

We offer solutions for email encryption. Email encryption ensures that your email communication is protected against eavesdropping and unauthorised access. With encrypted emails, sensitive information is kept private, which also ensures that you do not violate GDPR.

5. Data protection with proactive monitoring and unlimited support

Our consultants proactively monitor your IT infrastructure to detect and mitigate threats before they cause damage. We offer unlimited IT support so you can always get help when you need it.

Why work with SOLID IT?

We know that choosing an IT partner is an important decision, as choosing the wrong one can be costly. That’s why we want to make it clear what SOLID IT can offer your organisation:

Customised solutions, never standard solutions

At SOLID IT, we understand that every business has its own unique needs. To best meet these, all our solutions are customised to your business. We look at your industry, the size of your business, your finances and of course your specific challenges when creating a strategy for you.

Our goal is to deliver IT security that supports your business operations without being a burden.

Focus on IT for small and medium-sized businesses

From day one, our mission and vision has been to provide high-quality IT support to small and medium-sized businesses. This is still our focus today, as not all companies have the finances or resources to have an in-house IT support department.

At the same time, small businesses can find that they become just a small, insignificant piece of the big IT companies that typically prioritise the larger customers.

We want to change that. That’s why at SOLID IT you will always be our first priority.

Transparent pricing

Our transparent and predictable pricing model means you know exactly what you’re paying for. We believe that honesty goes the furthest.

Personalised and attentive support

Building long-term relationships based on trust, honesty and personalised service is important to us. That’s why we assign you a dedicated contact person whose job it is to make sure your issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.

IT security experts with years of experience

SOLID IT has years of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses like yours navigate the cyber security landscape. All our consultants are also certified and stay up-to-date on the latest technologies, solutions and IT threats.

Want to secure your organisation against cyber attacks?

Take the first step and contact SOLID IT for a no-obligation chat about how we can help you secure your data, comply with GDPR and create a seamless IT experience.

Fill out our contact form and we will make sure you are contacted by one of our IT specialists. If you prefer to get in touch yourself, you can call: +45 70 25 60 05 or send an email to: support@solidit.dk.

SOLID IT is there for you when you need it, and our IT support team is here to help with all IT-related questions and issues.