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Cybersecurity for startups: Why you should prioritize cybersecurity for startup  

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Cybersecurity for startups: Why you should prioritize cybersecurity for startup  

As a startup owner, there are several things that are on your mind, but cybersecurity is rarely one of them. It is a common misconception to believe that startups are last on the list of cyber criminals’ targets because of their small size. 

Startups and small businesses are targeted more so than ever before because, despite their size, they have massive amounts of sensitive data that the cybercriminals want to lock up for extortion. 

Let us explore why startups need to prioritize cybersecurity with some essential steps that they can take to protect it. 

Why must startups prioritize cybersecurity? 

Despite being new to the industry and limited in terms of scale of operations and team size, startups still store and process huge amounts of data on a day-to-day basis due to their increased reliance on digital environments to operate efficiently.

It also includes sensitive information like intellectual property, employee personal data, and business and finance-related data.

Any data breach could have a devasting consequence, causing a disruption in operations and loss of finance and data. It can have a severe negative impact on stakeholder trust.

A resilient cybersecurity posture that secures identities, operations, and sensitive information assets like intellectual property-related information, financial information, etc. can attract investors to a startup.

However, establishing a resilient cybersecurity posture can be challenging. The following are the challenges that the startups face while approaching cybersecurity:

Limited budgets

Startups often prioritize pooling investments, building sales strategies, creating a brand, etc. over cybersecurity therefore limiting budgets needed to afford the people, process, and technology for cybersecurity.

Limited team/expertise Rising cybersecurity skills gap

The global cybersecurity workforce gap is around 4,00,000, widening by 12.6% on a YoY basis (IC2), making it challenging for organizations to ensure security activities like round-the-clock monitoring and managing cybersecurity solutions.

Rising complexity and cost of cybersecurity solutions

Cybersecurity solutions will become more expensive and complex with more technological advancements in cybersecurity. Due to this, it will become more challenging for security teams to afford cybersecurity.

Evolving threat landscape

Cybercriminals are coming up with newer ways to deceive defenses, mask their presence, and maintain their persistence in their target’s network. Threats keep evolving and it becomes more challenging to keep up with them without the right expertise. Due to limited expertise, startups struggle to keep up with the evolving threat landscape.

Changing regulatory environment  

As the threat landscape keeps evolving, global and regional regulatory bodies for cybersecurity keep updating the cybersecurity requirements and it becomes challenging for organizations to keep up with the changing security requirements.

Some interesting facts

(Source – World economic forum, Cybersecurity Breaches Survey 2024)

  • Only 25% of small enterprises have cyber insurance despite being highly affected by cyber threats
  • There is a 30% reduction in the cyber resilience of small businesses 
  • Half of small organizations say they don’t have the skills to achieve cyber objectives 
  • Only 15% of businesses are confident about cybersecurity skills improvement in the next two years 
  • 60% of organizations with low revenue face severe skills shortage in cybersecurity 
  • 48% of small organizations have sought external information or guidance in the last 12 months for cybersecurity  
  • Only 39% have boards and trustees for cybersecurity 

What are the risks that startups can be exposed to? 

The following are some of the risks that a startup can be exposed to:

Business risks

  • Financial loss – Cybersecurity risks can lead to financial losses caused due to disruption in operations, damages from cyber attacks, or penalties due to non-compliance. 
  • Data loss and corruption – Cybercriminals often encrypt, steal, destroy, or publish sensitive data like intellectual property-related data, sensitive personal data of employees, etc.   
  • Operational disruption – Cyber attacks cause unavailability of data, files, etc. necessary to render services or perform operations. It can have a domino impact on the revenue of an organization. 
  • Reputational damage – The damage caused by a cyber attack like disruption in operations, noncompliance, loss of data, etc. can negatively impact the reputation of a startup that has just started its journey towards becoming a brand.     

Common cybersecurity risks faced by startups

Human error Human error remains the main cause of 95% of data breaches (World Economic Forum). Gaps in human awareness about cybersecurity threats and best practices expose startups to cyber threats including social engineering-based attacks like phishing.

  • Ransomware and malware – Cybercriminals use malware to snoop, infect systems, gain unauthorized access, steal and destroy sensitive information assets. They lock up sensitive folders in exchange for ransom.  Ransomware attacks remain one of the biggest threats to startups today. 
  • DDoS attacks – DDoS attacks overwhelm an organization’s network with fake traffic, disrupting operations. Cybercriminals exploit the fact that modern startups have cloud-based environments where systems are interconnected with each other and compromise of one can cause compromise of others 
  • Weaponized AI threats – Startups face adversaries that weaponize AI to bypass security measures of organizations and maintain presence in the network without being detected for a long time.  
  • Social engineering – there is a rapid rise in social engineering-based attacks where attackers target workers or high-level executives (also known as whaling) from startups. For example, they pose as a potential investor or supplier or a fake vendor asking for payment.

Some cybersecurity tips for startups 

Startups must prepare a comprehensive strategy that covers detection, identification, prevention and response to attacks. Here are some cybersecurity tips that can be followed by startups:

Consider an effective cybersecurity framework 

Devise a comprehensive cybersecurity framework or consider an existing cybersecurity framework that comprises the best practices in security alongside the controls and measures required to boost resilience against the latest threats. For example, the NIST framework has some of the industry’s best practices that provide organizations with a starting point for building a resilient security posture.

Regularly assess the security posture for gaps 

To proactively stay two moves ahead of threats, it is critical to regularly assess the security posture for security, compliance, and awareness gaps. Startups can seek the assistance of experts in assessing the posture with real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures used by modern-day threats. They must also measure awareness gaps across departments and regularly conduct training and awareness on cybersecurity. 

Prioritize cybersecurity 

Consider investing in cybersecurity with a budget for a dedicated team of cybersecurity and compliance experts. They can assist you in monitoring your infrastructure, responding to threats, configuring and managing your cybersecurity suite, helping you secure your sensitive information assets, and adhering to compliance

Ensure cybersecurity hygiene 

It means setting policies that mandate setting strong passwords, enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), updating software and systems regularly, and having an incident response plan that necessitates remediation, recovery, and response steps.   

Create a culture of cybersecurity 

Creating a cybersecurity culture means that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and everyone in the organization makes efforts to understand, identify, report, and address security and compliance risks at their level. It is part of all company-wide meetings, boardroom discussions, group meetings, etc. 

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