10 Cybersecurity Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Richard Baum

VanderNet Security Analyst

Cybersecurity is no longer only an enterprise concern. Small and midsized businesses face many of the same threats as large organizations, including phishing, ransomware, stolen credentials, business email compromise, vulnerable software, and unauthorized access.

The difference is that smaller organizations often have fewer internal IT and cybersecurity resources available to identify and respond to those threats.

At VanderNet, we work with businesses to reduce cybersecurity risk through a layered approach that combines endpoint security, identity protection, network security, vulnerability management, employee training, backups, monitoring, and ongoing IT management.

While every organization is different, many cybersecurity incidents begin with the same preventable mistakes.

Here are 10 of the most common cybersecurity mistakes small businesses make — and practical ways to avoid them.

1. Assuming Your Business Is Too Small for Cybercriminals

One of the most dangerous cybersecurity misconceptions is that attackers only want to target large companies.

In reality, many cyberattacks are automated. Attackers scan the internet looking for exposed systems, vulnerable software, weak passwords, misconfigured cloud accounts, and other opportunities.

They may not know anything about your company before attempting to compromise it.

Small businesses can also be attractive targets because they may have access to financial information, customer data, employee information, email accounts, payment systems, and relationships with larger organizations.

How to reduce the risk?

Treat cybersecurity as a normal part of operating a business. Start by understanding what systems and information are critical to your organization, identifying where they are vulnerable, and creating a plan to reduce those risks. Cybersecurity does not have to begin with a massive project. It begins with knowing what you need to protect.

2. Relying on Passwords Without Multi-Factor Authentication

Passwords alone are no longer enough to protect important business accounts. Passwords can be stolen through phishing attacks, malware, fake login pages, credential breaches, and password reuse.

Once an attacker has a valid username and password, they may be able to access email, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, cloud applications, financial systems, or remote-access services without triggering an obvious warning.

How to reduce the risk?

Enable multi-factor authentication, or MFA, wherever possible.

MFA should be considered especially important for:

• Email accounts
• Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and cloud platforms
• Administrative accounts
• Remote access
• Financial applications
• Password managers
• Critical business applications

MFA creates an additional barrier even when an attacker has obtained a user's password.

3. Giving Users More Access Than They Need

Administrator access is convenient, but unnecessary privileges can significantly increase the impact of a compromised account or infected computer.

If every employee has broad access to company systems, files, or administrative functions, an attacker who compromises one employee may inherit that access.

How to reduce the risk?

Follow the principle of least privilege. Employees should have access to the applications, information, and systems required to perform their jobs — but not significantly more.

Organizations should also periodically review permissions because responsibilities change over time. A user who needed access to a system two years ago may no longer need it today.

4. Delaying Security Updates and Software Patches

Software vulnerabilities are discovered constantly. Microsoft Windows, web browsers, business applications, servers, firewalls, network equipment, and third-party software all require regular security updates.

Once a vulnerability becomes publicly known, attackers may begin actively searching for organizations that have not patched it.

How to reduce the risk?

Businesses should have a documented patch-management process that includes:

• Identifying available security updates.
• Evaluating the risk and urgency of those updates.
• Testing updates when appropriate.
• Deploying them consistently.
• Confirming that deployment was successful.

Patch management should include more than Windows computers. Servers, networking equipment, cloud services, and third-party applications should also be considered.

5. Believing Antivirus Alone Provides Complete Protection

Antivirus is an important cybersecurity control, but it is only one layer. Modern cyberattacks do not always involve traditional malware.

Attackers may use:

• Stolen credentials
• Legitimate remote-access software
• Malicious scripts
• Compromised cloud accounts
• Unauthorized applications
• Social engineering
• Email forwarding rules
• Previously trusted applications

A security strategy built around antivirus alone leaves significant gaps.

How to reduce the risk?

Use a layered cybersecurity approach. Depending on the organization, this may include endpoint protection, application control, secure web access, identity protection, multi-factor authentication, firewall security, vulnerability management, security monitoring, backups, and employee awareness training.

The goal is not to rely on a single product, but instead create multiple opportunities to prevent, detect, or contain an attack.

6. Treating Cybersecurity Awareness Training as Optional

Many attacks are designed specifically to bypass technology by convincing a person to take an action. An attacker might ask an employee to:

• Open a malicious attachment
• Sign in through a fake Microsoft 365 page
• Approve an unexpected MFA request
• Change payment instructions
• Purchase gift cards
• Share confidential information
• Install remote-access software
• Respond to an executive impersonation email

These attacks are often referred to as social engineering.

How to reduce the risk?

Provide ongoing cybersecurity awareness training.

Employees should learn how to identify phishing, suspicious login requests, unusual financial requests, impersonation attempts, and other common attack techniques. Phishing simulations can also help employees practice recognizing threats in a controlled environment.

Most importantly, employees should know how to report something suspicious quickly. With training, employees will be more aware of what is considered suspicious activity and if they know how to report it quickly, most social engineering attempts will fail immediately.

Security-conscious employees can become one of the strongest layers in a company's cybersecurity program.

7. Having Backups but Never Testing Them

Backups are critical for recovering from ransomware, hardware failure, accidental deletion, corruption, and other disasters. But simply seeing that a backup job completed does not guarantee that the organization can recover.

A successful backup strategy must answer a more important question:

Can we restore the business when we need to?

How to reduce the risk?

Businesses should protect backups from unauthorized modification and routinely verify that important data can be restored. A strong backup and disaster-recovery strategy should consider:

• What data is being protected
• How frequently it is backed up
• Where backups are stored
• How backups are protected
• How long recovery may take
• Which systems must be restored first
• Whether restoration has actually been tested

Backups should be treated as part of cybersecurity.

8. Failing to Disable Accounts When Employees Leave

Employee departures create a cybersecurity risk when access is not removed promptly. Former employees may still have access to:

• Email
• VPN connections
• Cloud applications
• File-sharing platforms
• Business software
• Remote-access services
• Company devices
• Other websites used by the company

Employees that are separated might have malicious intentions. While most do not, the risk exists. However, even if the employee being separated has no malicious intentions, unused accounts can become attractive targets to attackers.

How to reduce the risk?

Create a standardized employee offboarding process and enforce it. When an employee leaves, organizations should disable accounts, revoke active sessions, remove remote-access permissions, recover company equipment, transfer required business information, and verify access to third-party applications.

Access should also be reviewed when an employee changes roles to avoid unused accounts or access to systems they no longer need access to.

Good cybersecurity requires managing the entire lifecycle of an account — not just creating it.

9. Installing Security Tools Without Monitoring Them

A business may have multiple cybersecurity products installed and still remain exposed if nobody is reviewing what those systems are reporting. Security tools are great, but if nobody is watching what they are reporting, their protection ultimately is ineffective.

Security tools can generate alerts related to:

• Malware
• Suspicious logins
• Vulnerable devices
• Unauthorized software
• Unusual user behavior
• Network threats
• Cloud account changes
• Endpoint security events

An alert that nobody investigates provides limited protection.

How to reduce the risk?

Organizations need an ongoing security-monitoring and response process. Someone should be responsible for reviewing meaningful alerts, determining whether activity is legitimate, escalating potential incidents, and taking corrective action when needed.

For many small and midsized organizations, this responsibility is handled by a managed IT provider, cybersecurity provider, or security operations center. Make sure they are actually doing what their salesperson claims they do.

Early detection can significantly reduce the amount of time an attacker has to operate inside an environment.

10. Waiting Until an Incident to Create a Response Plan

A cybersecurity incident is a poor time to decide who is responsible for responding, but unfortunately many businesses put this off until it is too late.

Consider what happens if an employee reports that their Microsoft 365 account has been compromised or ransomware appears on a company computer.

• Who should they contact?
• Should the computer be disconnected?
• Should credentials be reset?
• Who determines whether other systems were affected?
• Does the cyber insurance carrier need to be contacted?
• Who communicates with customers or employees?

Without a plan, valuable time can be lost answering these questions during the incident.

How to reduce the risk?

Create a basic cybersecurity incident response plan before an incident occurs and make sure appropriate employees know how and when to use it. The plan should identify:

• Internal points of contact
• IT and cybersecurity contacts
• Escalation procedures
• Communication responsibilities
• Cyber insurance information
• Legal or regulatory contacts when applicable
• Critical systems and recovery priorities
• Basic containment procedures

The plan should also be reviewed periodically as often personnel and vendors and software changes. We recommend an annual review of this plan.

You do not need to predict every possible cyberattack. The plan can easily become too big and cumbersome with that approach. You do, however, need enough preparation to make good decisions quickly.

What Does a Good Small Business Cybersecurity Strategy Look Like?

There is no single cybersecurity product that protects an organization from every threat. Effective cybersecurity uses multiple layers that work together. Also, cybersecurity is not just about the software installed. Written policies and procedures must be in place, trained and enforced.

A good strategy for small and midsized businesses include these layers:

• Multi-factor authentication — enforce wherever possible.
• Secure identity and access management
• Endpoint protection
• Application control
• Email and phishing protection
• Network and firewall security
• Secure internet access
• Vulnerability management
• Patch management
• Security awareness training
• Data protection and backups
• Security monitoring and response
• Incident response planning

The concept of layered security applications and policies is often referred to as defense in depth. If one security control fails, another layer may still prevent an attacker from succeeding or help detect the activity before significant damage occurs.

Frequently Asked Small Business Cybersecurity Questions

Q. What is the biggest cybersecurity risk for small businesses?

There is no single risk that applies to every organization, but compromised credentials, phishing, unpatched systems, excessive permissions, and poor security monitoring are common contributors to cybersecurity incidents. The most effective approach is to evaluate the organization's specific environment rather than focus on only one threat.

Q. Does a small business really need cybersecurity?

Yes. Any organization that uses email, online banking, cloud applications, customer information, employee information, computers, or internet-connected systems has some form of cybersecurity risk. The level of protection should be appropriate for the organization's size, industry, data, regulatory requirements, and business operations.

Q. Is Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace security enough to protect a small business?

Microsoft 365 includes many important security capabilities, particularly with the appropriate licensing and configuration. However, cybersecurity extends beyond Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Businesses must also consider endpoint devices, networks, firewalls, third-party applications, employee training, vulnerabilities, backups, monitoring, and incident response.

Q. What is layered cybersecurity?

Layered cybersecurity means using multiple security controls rather than depending on a single technology. For example, an organization might use MFA to protect identities, endpoint security to protect computers, application controls to prevent unauthorized software, secure internet access to block malicious destinations, backups to protect data, and monitoring to identify suspicious activity. Each layer addresses a different part of the risk. Then, well-written and enforced internal business policies is the glue that takes this net of security layers to the next level. That is where layered cybersecurity evolves into true defense in depth.

Q. How often should a business review its cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity should be managed continuously, but organizations should also perform periodic formal reviews. A review may include checking user access, reviewing vulnerabilities, confirming backups, evaluating security policies, verifying MFA coverage, examining outdated equipment, and assessing whether the business has changed in ways that create new risks.

Major changes — such as opening a new location, adopting new cloud services, acquiring another company, or significantly increasing remote work — should also trigger a cybersecurity review.

Q. Why does it feel like I keep paying more and more for cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is not a one-time project, and it cannot be solved by purchasing a single product. Technology changes. Employees change. Applications change. Your business changes. And the methods cybercriminals use continue to evolve.

A strong cybersecurity program continuously evaluates risk and adjusts the protections around your people, systems, and data. For small and midsized businesses, that typically means combining the right technology with ongoing management, monitoring, employee education, maintenance, and a trusted IT and cybersecurity partner.

It can be helpful to think of cybersecurity as an ongoing operating expense rather than a one-time purchase. Just as businesses budget for electricity, insurance, vehicles, building maintenance, or other essential operating costs, cybersecurity should have a continuing place in the budget.

The goal is not to continually buy more security products. The goal is to maintain an appropriate level of protection as your business, technology, and risks change.

Q. How Does VanderNet Help Businesses Strengthen Cybersecurity

VanderNet helps small and midsized organizations manage cybersecurity as part of their overall IT strategy. Rather than relying on a single security tool, we focus on building multiple layers of protection around users, devices, networks, applications, and business data. That can include areas such as:

• Endpoint cybersecurity
• Email Security
• Multi-factor authentication
• Application control
• Network and firewall security
• Secure internet and remote access
• Vulnerability management
• Patch management
• Security monitoring and response
• Employee cybersecurity awareness training
• Data protection and backups
• Incident response planning
• And much more…

The objective is straightforward: reduce the likelihood of a successful attack, identify suspicious activity early, and improve your organization's ability to recover when something goes wrong.

If you are unsure where your organization stands, a cybersecurity review can help identify the highest-priority risks and determine where improvements will have the greatest impact. VanderNet helps businesses build practical, layered cybersecurity strategies designed around the way they actually work.

If you would like help with your business's cyber security needs, reach out to us, tell us what your business is facing, where support is falling short, or what you want to improve. We'll help you figure out the right next step.

Richard Baum

VanderNet Security Analyst

Richard Baum specializes in compliance frameworks and risk assessment methodologies, helping organizations build practical, sustainable security programs.