David Morey 
If you’re running a business of any kind, then security should be a major concern. If you can’t protect the assets and personnel through which your operation functions, then you leave yourself vulnerable. There are also strong legal reasons to keep yourself secure, since, in many cases, doing so is a regulatory requirement.
Cybersecurity: A Business Imperative
If your business runs using modern computer technology, then the chances are good that online threats are more pressing than offline ones. A survey by Mastercard recently revealed that around 46% of small and medium-sized businesses have experienced a cyberattack; nearly one in five business owners reported having suffered an attack that led to bankruptcy.
Taking the various risks seriously is imperative. That means frequent updates and regular training.
Physical Security: Safeguarding Your Premises
Of course, just because many modern threats take a digital form doesn’t mean that we can afford to ignore the real-world ones. If an attacker can walk into your premises and steal, destroy, or damage your property, then your business is at risk.
Fortunately, many physical security measures are more accessible than ever. You might install surveillance cameras around your premises, or access control that does away with traditional locks and keys.
Data Protection and Compliance
We’ve already mentioned the importance of regulation. In Canada, the most important private-sector privacy statute is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (or ‘PIPEDA’). This imposes a number of requirements on small businesses.
Staying on the right side of the rules can help you avoid fines and other penalties. It can also bolster your reputation, and ensure that you enjoy consumer confidence.
VPNs and Remote Work Security
Many modern businesses are reliant, in part, on remote workers. If you want to contribute work remotely, however, then you’ll need to ensure that your data isn’t being intercepted by malicious third parties.
There’s a way to get around this problem. Encryption is the practice of scrambling data so that it can only be unscrambled by the person who is supposed to be reading it.
A small business VPN is a convenient way of ensuring that every single data packet your workers send to one another is suitably encrypted. It does this by funneling everything through a remote server.
Of course, there are other forms of encryption that can make a difference, too. In the modern internet, it’s a virtual requirement that every website you visit is encrypted via HTTPS. However, the Virtual Private Network remains the gold standard!
