The majority of small and mid-sized businesses tend to have very small IT teams, sometimes as low as one or two people who do everything. The problem lies within the fact that the risks these businesses face are essentially the same as those faced by larger businesses. Ransomware, phishing, and cloud configurations are not discriminatory when it comes to business size. The issue for CISOs and IT professionals at these businesses is not awareness of these risks but execution.

The Risks Hiding in Plain Sight

The majority of cloud-based data breaches are caused by misconfigured settings. The issue lies within the fact that these misconfigured settings are not easy to detect unless someone has taken the time to look for them. This means that an S3 bucket left open, user IAM settings that are too liberal, and logging turned off provide hackers with the keys to sensitive company information without raising any alarms.

Inadequate access controls only serve to compound the problem. The sharing of login credentials, outdated user accounts, and the lack of role-based user controls provide hackers with an enormous attack surface. Phishing attacks are the most common, and it only takes one account to be breached to undo all of the hard work that was done to protect it.

Where Automation Fills the Gap

Small IT teams do not have the luxury of man-power to sit around and review every change individually. This is where automation fills the gap. CSPM tools provide automated scans to detect misconfigured settings, giving teams notice of potential breaches before they are exploited. SIEM tools with AI capabilities provide potential breach detection capabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed for weeks.

Similarly, backup automation must also receive similar thought. Manually managing SaaS data backup, such as email, documents, or even CRM data, is simply not a viable solution. Researching the best SaaS backup software for small businesses is a good exercise for organizations that must have robust backup and recovery solutions in place.

The Practices That Matter Most

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is one of the most impactful practices organizations must have in place, yet even in SMB organizations, adoption varies. Making MFA a requirement for cloud applications, not just email, significantly reduces the risk from cyberattacks.

Least Privilege Access is another practice that must have discipline in order to implement, but one that offers immediate and significant rewards. All users, services, and API keys must have the least privilege required to perform their functions. Reviewing access privileges on a quarterly basis is a good practice that could reveal changes in user access rights.

Data Encryption, at Rest or in Transit, is not optional. Thankfully, most cloud providers have this feature enabled by default; however, it is worth verifying.

Building Resilience on a Realistic Budget

Having a lean team does not automatically mean that they have a less secure cloud environment. Organizations that are good at cloud security in SMB organizations have one or two areas they are focusing on, and they are not necessarily being reactive about their security.

First and foremost, you have to have visibility. If you do not have that, you cannot even think about how you are going to protect your cloud environment, and therefore, the most important investment you can make is in tools that provide your team with visibility into your cloud environment!