3 Affordable Cybersecurity Implementations that Cost Less Than $100

A primary reason many businesses avoid cybersecurity is cost. Of the millions of businesses that exist, only a few take cybersecurity seriously and put tools in place for it. The rest? They are left behind and vulnerable.

Having spoken to a couple of startup entrepreneurs, I found they are pretty conscious of cybersecurity, but because startups aren’t where money flows easily, a cybersecurity budget is often neglected.

A decent startup's average cybersecurity budget can range from $ 1,200 to tens of thousands of dollars per month.

What if I told you that for $100 or less, you can begin protecting your business and your customers’ money and data?

Staying Prepared

The best way to win, as a business, regardless of your size, when it comes to cybersecurity, is to stay prepared. Plan before an attack, plan to be attacked, and also plan on how you can quickly work your way out.

It doesn’t have to be that hard. In this article, I will walk you through 3 cybersecurity implementations you can start right now, with just about $100.

The good part of this is that it doesn't even require your business to be tech-heavy. As long as you have a business, cybersecurity should be a priority. If your budget can’t cover the high costs of cybersecurity, you MUST do these instead of being vulnerable to cyberattacks.

1. An Incident Response Plan

Recall when I wrote about planning earlier? An Incident response plan is a standard document that provides a general overview of how to act from when an incident is detected to when it is resolved. Incident response plans are important because during an incident, a prompt and accurate response matters significantly. With an incident response plan in place, organizations know exactly what to do without confusion.

When drafting an incident response, keep these in mind:

• Your Industry: The kind of industry your business operates in will determine what to include in your incident response plan. This is because different industries face different issues, especially regarding earnings.

If, for instance, you are in fintech, you would typically store sensitive information in a database, and you should definitely prepare for and plan for a potential attack targeting your database.

• Your company’s size: how you structure your incident response depends on the size of your business. Businesses with fewer than 10 staff typically need an incident response plan that differs from that of businesses with 50 to 100 staff, even if they are in the same industry.

One reason is that the size of the business will affect which sections and roles are available.

• Framework to follow: Adhering to industry practices is necessary for creating a good incident response plan. Due to its reputation, the NIST framework is often a good choice.

These three aren't hard-fixed rules, but as a general practice, I would recommend you use them as guides.

2. Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Having an AUP for your business will save you a lot of stress; additionally, it can serve as legal backing in the event of an employee or third-party contractor getting your business into cyber trouble.

An AUP outlines how employees and third-party vendors must act when dealing with your business.

Without an AUP in place, anyone would act as they wish, with employees using official email for unofficial sign-ups or personal use. Third-party vendors sharing the company’s privileged data with anyone of their choosing. Such acts can expose your business to cybersecurity risks.

3. Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan

A business continuity & disaster recovery plan is a cybersecurity document that helps keep your business operations running during a cyber incident.

Your business operations must never shut down, nor must critical services be suspended, during an incident.

A key ingredient in a disaster recovery and business continuity plan is redundancy.

The concept of redundancy in cybersecurity is an availability-triad strategy that seeks to duplicate and, when possible, triplicate essential systems and assets so that, if one fails, another instantly takes over, preventing temporary service suspension.

Think of it as having a backup generator when there is a sudden loss of power.

However, in cybersecurity, this concept is often automated. i.e., backup automations using OneDrive, Apple iCloud, or even Google Drive to back up important data that can be recovered without loss at any time.

What Can You Do?

As a business owner, you must understand that these methods are not an alternative, but as stepping stones- the minimal things to start doing to prevent attacks from coming to your doorstep.

Hiring a technical writer is sufficient for this; if you already have one, that's cool. A better option is to assign it to an entry-level cybersecurity analyst who can set up these frameworks and policies.

While minimal, these 3 can be the difference between your startup surviving or even escaping an attack or not.