Tips for Software Companies to Spend a Little Less Time Worrying About Digital Security

There’s a lot of money to be made offering software as a service. It can be very rewarding too. Offering useful software to companies that make their lives easier can make you feel like you’re really making a difference while doing something you love.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good. In today’s world, cyber security is a real issue. If you offer software as a service, you probably spend more time worrying about cyber security than other businesses. Not only can it cause a lot of stress, it can take time away from other areas of your business that you should be focusing on.

Stress and anxiety over cyber security doesn’t have to come with the territory. There are things you can do to rest easier at night knowing you’re offering the most secure tech service to your clients as possible.

Get Certified

Often what causes the most stress and anxiety is the fact that although you understand the basics of cybersecurity, and you understand its importance, you don’t necessarily understand the details. Get certified or trained and you’ll likely feel a lot better.

For example, certification in ISO 27001 compliance for SaaS companies can make you feel much more knowledgeable, but it can also be a huge benefit to potential customers. Getting certified in auditing means you can audit your system whenever you want, or you could even get certified as an ethical hacker, which will allow you to tinker with your system to find potential problems whenever you’re feeling nervous about the security of your platform.

Hire an Expert

Even with some training and interest in cyber security, you won’t be able to do it all. Even if you could, you may not want to! There are plenty of other things you should be spending your time on.

Instead of trying to do it all yourself, or hoping unqualified members of your team are willing to pitch in and help, you may want to consider hiring a cybersecurity expert.

They can help you with every area of cyber security including:

• Protecting company data
• Ensuring user safety
• Assisting new employees with secure login information
• IT infrastructure organization

Limit Access Among Your Employees

Did you know that nearly half of all small business employees are able to access way too much company data? That may sound convenient because it means your employees can access information whenever they need it instead of getting permission, but it will end up causing you more stress later on down the road.

Even if a disgruntled employee having access to important information doesn’t become a problem, accidents can happen to well-meaning employees who maybe aren’t so careful with their passwords.

Do yourself a favor and only provide employees with access to the information they need to do their job. The fewer people who are allowed access to important information, the fewer chances there are of things slipping through the cracks.

Close the Backdoor

An encryption backdoor sounds like a good idea when you’re initially creating a new software program. It can make it easy for you to hack into your own system if there’s ever a problem, but if you can hack into your system, so can someone else.

No matter how well-hidden you think your backdoor is, it can be discovered by someone else if it exists. Instead of losing sleep at night wondering how long your secret will go undiscovered, do yourself a favor and close the backdoor. If programmed correctly, you should be able to access your system without a problem, even without a backdoor.

Authenticate Users Over and Over Again

How often does your software authenticate users? That includes the customers who use your platform, but it also includes your employees.

If your system requires a password on the login page but doesn’t continue to authenticate that login information on every page, others could easily access your platform, even without any login information at all.

Implement user authentication that is completed on each and every page of your platform. That way, simply copying and pasting web pages into other browsers doesn’t enable those with bad intentions to access information without the proper credentials.

Do you spend a lot of time worrying about the digital security of your software? You don’t have to! With a little time and attention upfront, you can focus in on the details that could make you vulnerable so you can go to bed at night confident that your company’s and customers’ information is safe and secure.