We live in the information age, where technology has risen to levels that allows it to touch our lives in ways never thought imaginable.

We have the smart device, which we can use for the weather, we have automated devices, mobile phones that we can surf the web on, purchase online and trade via cryptocurrency.

As everything in the world becomes more digitalised, this opens the door for cybersecurity as an increasingly more important thing.

On the internet you have all kinds of attacks, from data breaches, scams, ransomware attacks, phishing and much more, this makes accessing the internet a relatively dangerous place. Studies have shown that close to 50% of all businesses, at some point fall prey to a cyberattack.

For this reason, for those of you considering setting up a business, it’s important you already have the safeguards in place, as this will mitigate any issues in the long run.

In the past year alone, we’ve witnessed a significant increase in the costs associated with fixing cybersecurity issues. An increase of $4.2 million in 2021.

The unfortunate reality is that, with the large number of cybercrime, and with so much bad advice out there, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction. So in this article, we will be covering 5 cybersecurity myths that you should already be aware of.

Cybersecurity Is Exclusively Technology Related

An organisation cannot rely solely on technology to secure its data. When it comes to cybersecurity, the best approach to adopt includes a mix of accepted procedures and policies, employee training, and the implementation of the most up-to-date technologies, such as antimalware, antivirus and antispyware tools. When securing a system, network or company from cyberattacks, this is a task that everyone involved should be a part of, not just those assigned to the task.

To effectively combat this issue, you need to educate every employee (regardless of their function within the organisation) on the various responsibilities involved in protecting and securing a business. There are several online sources that you can find, that will dive deeper into this, I recommend you check them out.

Both Digital and Physical Security Are Separate From One Another

A lot of people make the mistake of associating cybersecurity with just software. However, when it comes to protecting your assets, you should also consider its physical security.

If it’s an organisation, then you’ll want to create an assessment of your office layout. Looking at, how difficult or easy it is to access the physical area unauthorised. From which a hacker can gain access either to the computer systems, servers or physical records (paper). Once you have finished your assessment, you’ll also want to establish policies and strategies that are tasked with prohibiting unauthorised physical access. Such policies may include things such as establishing control over who does and does not have access to specific office areas, and properly securing devices, such as phones and laptops while traveling. Again, you can find more information on physical security online – so I suggest you take the time to learn more about this topic.

You Will Never Face a Cyberattack

This is understandably wishful. Cyber threats are continuously growing, in numbers, sophistication and complexity, which is why businesses should want to stay ahead of these things, so that they do not find themselves defenceless against such attacks.

Since the pandemic, which led to a lot of companies moving to remote work, this has led to a sharp increase in the amount of cybercrime; numbers put it around the 300% mark.

Securing your system 100% is not a realistic possibility, as a result of this, you want to adopt a strategic security process, which ensures swift and decisive reactions to attacks, so that they are both decreased and mitigated.

There are also additional measures that you can and should have in place, such as the use of a virtual phone number, so that you can protect your location, and encrypt your most important files on your various devices.

Cyber Criminals Don’t Target Small or Medium-Sized Businesses

So, you’ve just started your small business. You went out and registered a brand new domain, and everything is looking great. You believe, there is no chance a cybercriminal will attack you, correct?

The unfortunate reality is that a lot of medium-sized and small businesses (SMBs) believe that cybercriminals are more interested in larger enterprises, which creates a false sense of security for these small companies.

However, the reality is that, based on studies that around 40% of all attacks are targeted at the smaller and medium-sized business. That’s almost around half of all attacks.

The reality is that smaller businesses and start-ups have virtually no advanced security system in place, along with specialised employees.

This makes these companies prime targets, instead of the much larger corporations, that already have these checks and balances.

Whether it’s a phishing, ransomware, malware or any other kind of attack, any one of them is capable of devastating your small business, especially if that business lacks the resources to survive such an attack.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is Secure

There are many benefits to the BYOD policies, so it’s understandable, why some people may feel that way. Employees are more likely to feel productive, which can elevate their productivity, when using their own device, and a lot of money is saved in both business owned devices and software licenses.

For example, it’s possible for calls to be re-routed to your mobile phone or laptop for example, through the use of an automatic call distributor. But, is bringing your own device, really the most secure option?

When you decide to adopt this policy, you open up your businesses to a large number of potential threats, each and every time an employee connects their device to your network.

You can minimize this risk however, by putting in place a rigorous security protocol, which kicks into action every time a tablet, phone, laptop, or IoT device attempts to connect to your network.

To put it simply, you want every external device, regardless of where it’s coming from, to be treated as a potential threat to your business.

This is the only way that you can ensure, you don’t fall victim to potentially hundreds of different threats out there.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website https://www.compuchenna.co.uk.