If Addressing Cybersecurity In Your Company Intimidates You . . . Just Start

By Dave Carey

If you started a business on Main Street 50 years ago, there’s something you would have certainly done on the very first day: You would have made sure you can lock your door.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you would eliminate every possible vulnerability that could arise in the world of 1975. You might still, at some point, consider alarm systems, security personnel or other such measures. But on the first day, you would absolutely not close up and head for home without having a lock on your door.

Security for your business is a journey, and the journey has to start somewhere.

That lock on the door is where it starts.

In the world of 2025, many businesses are not in such an accessible place. They may not even have a physical place, since so much of the business world is remote and mainly digital. There may not be a literal door that requires a literal lock.

But the threats to today’s businesses are digital in nature, and that can be a bit intimidating to modern-day business owners who don’t fully grasp the ins and outs of cybersecurity – and are afraid that what really needs to be done is enormous and complicated and expensive.

But just like that Main Street shop from 1975, the journey to security has to start somewhere.

That’s what I think business owners need to understand above all else when it comes to cybersecurity. What they need to do is . . . just start.

Where Do I Start?

The best answer is probably a cybersecurity assessment by a professional like me. That will show you your strengths and vulnerabilities, and will give you a sense of everything you can and should do to protect your business.

Proactive measures to protect your cybersecurity are usually not as expensive as people expect them to be, but there will be some cost, and there will be some demands on the people in the organization.

Without an assessment, you don’t know what needs to be done or what it will cost, so you can’t really make an informed decision about what to do now, what to do later or what to put off indefinitely.

I want your business to stay safe. Simply hoping you won’t be targeted is not a way to stay safe, nor is reassuring yourself that hackers probably won’t target you because you’re small.

Every day I look at information databases that list companies who got stuck with ransom demands and compromises of their data. Many weren’t targeted so much as they got caught up in the bad guys’ broader operations and happened to be vulnerable at the wrong place and the wrong time.

Maybe one of their customers or vendors was the target and the hackers took them down too. If they had gotten an assessment before any of this happened, they would at least have known the steps that could have protected them.

Cybersecurity is Not a Destination, It’s a Journey

I can understand why business owners prefer not to be burdened by a never-ending journey, but it’s no different than managing your finances, keeping your office clean or making sure the lights work. You do these things every day because you can’t perform your core functions if you don’t.

And you also can’t perform your core functions if hackers breach your systems, steal your data, hold it for ransom and threaten to sell it to other people.

In the world of 1975, the Main Street shop owner would have been concerned about thugs breaking in, so locking the door would be a given.

In the world of 2025, the business owner has to be concerned about thugs breaching your system, so understanding your vulnerabilities must be a given.

If cybersecurity intimidates you, and you’re afraid it will become this overwhelming process . . . just start. Once you’re on the journey you’ll realize that you can handle it, and that it’s important. And you’ll feel good about the fact that you really are protecting your enterprise.

Let’s go. I’m here to help. Let’s get started. Call me at 616.217.3019 or e-mail dacarey@cybersynergies.io.

Dave Carey is president and CEO of CyberSynergies, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based cybersecurity consulting firm.