Startups need to grow up about security

Startups need to grow up about security

Using home consumer products to protect a small business from cyberthreats is risky, especially for a fast-growing enterprise adding employees

Consumer security products lack some features, Mr Moiseev says.
Consumer security products lack some features, Mr Moiseev says.

Entrepreneurship magazines are filled with stories about how people started their businesses and quickly achieved success, turning their business from a hobby or an idea into an actual small company.

From a being a chef to founding a food startup or from working in an office as a software developer to developing their own service, or from a young mother to an owner of an online store, people can dramatically transform their careers.

Transformation from individual entrepreneurship to a real business occurs so quickly that sometimes newly successful business leaders do not even have time to realise the gravity of their new status. I noticed this when talking with people from the Kaspersky Innovation hub -- a dedicated department where we scout internal and external innovative startups. They see themselves as entrepreneurs, but not yet the users of fully fledged business services (for example, messaging, videoconferencing, collaboration cloud services and storage).

The line between two states is indeed very thin. However, once new business leaders become aware of their new status, they can make their lives much easier, solving business problems faster and more effectively.

Here is a very clear example of how this can be done. Let's use the story of Wendy and Peter. Peter works as a cook, and in his free time, he experiments with healthy desserts and sells them through his Instagram account. Wendy works as a consultant in a large firm and dreams of exchanging the office routine for something more exciting.

After thinking it over, they decide that their resources and skills are great for opening a small cafe with healthy desserts and drinks in a busy neighbourhood. When the time comes to buy furniture, accessories and utensils, they visit Ikea.

Having thought through the design and chosen the products they want on the Ikea website, they spend hours walking through store with their trolley, picking up cups, spoons, chairs and plants. For entrepreneurs who occasionally combine several jobs in one, this lost time is extremely valuable.

The fact is that Ikea has a special service -- Ikea Business, which works with companies and simplifies their purchasing tasks. As a business owner, you can choose a finished interior or individual products, order delivery and installation, and even do it all on credit.

STILL NOT ENOUGH

This story illustrates the trend that we have found among small businesses, including our customers, who use consumer tools instead of special offers for business. When it comes to protecting your IT systems, that is not good enough.

We interviewed nearly 700 companies with fewer than 50 employees each in various paths of the world, and a quarter of them admitted that they use products designed for home use to protect their business from cyberthreats. This confirms what we see through our sales analytics as well -- consumer IT security products are purchased by businesses, and the share of these sales is remarkable, it is not about several occasional cases per year.

Basically, these are companies that consist of a few people, some of whom have just recently left individual entrepreneurship, and some have had their business for some time already, with a staff of three to 10 employees.

Perhaps this option seems easier, cheaper and faster for them. They probably do not have full-time IT specialists, they do not need to set up special policies, analyse threat events or manage hundreds of devices. They just need to "set and forget" their IT security for reasonable money. And it seems that a home-based product for family protection provides all they need.

Security tailored for consumers is a great thing and it is possible to use it for business protection. It is possible to protect several devices with one licence, including PCs and mobile devices. However, it still lacks some features and can't meet all business demands, even for small companies.

What if a company has not five but 20 employees, or the business is growing very fast and number of employees is constantly increasing? Then it suddenly needs several licences for a consumer product, but the person who manages protection won't be able to manage all devices together.

The business will not have the visibility it needs across all devices and the status of their protection. In addition, consumer products cannot be used for server protection, so file servers where a company normally stores all business data will not be safe.

CHANGING MINDSETS

The use of inappropriate services and products is not necessarily fatal for businesses, and even cybersecurity is not an exception. The key takeaway from this story is the idea that companies should realise they are actually businesses.

This means they need to consider everything from a point of view that benefits the company and ensures efficiencies. Companies must find optimal solutions to solving problems -- whether it's buying furniture for a restaurant or managing the logistics of order deliveries from a store in Tokyo to Copenhagen.

These small steps towards a big business will not harm progress, but will help to save money and time. Moreover, a properly organised cyber-defence will help secure all your effective business processes and the results of entrepreneurial work.

Alexander Moiseev is the chief business officer of Kaspersky, a multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider.

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