The holiday season is upon us and is typically a do-or-die time for most small businesses. Since much of their revenue is produced during this busy shopping period, it’s important for small businesses to have top-notch cybersecurity in place to keep online sales and company information secure. However, not all small business owners are IT experts and time is of the essence. With Christmas just 10 days away, below are three easy steps a small business owner can take to keep company information and online sales safe and secure.

Back up data.

One of the best ways to fight a cyber attack is to back up company data frequently and consistently. Having cloud hosting and extra hard drives or USBs for backup can seem like a pain in the butt, but at least the data is accessible to a business even if a cyber attack occurs. Also, it’s important to identify and lock down all company hardware since a lot of lost data is obtained through stolen hardware. An extra security measure is to encrypt company data so even if a hacker acquires sensitive information, it is unreadable to them. It is better to take precaution and perform extra steps to keep company data secure than to do nothing and potentially lose it all. Remember, hacked data is gone data.

Secure internet connections.

Having company Wi-Fi and offering it to your customers free of charge is great for business, but it should be secure and ensure your data and a customer’s information is safe. Using protected access, a strong password and a guest network will not only help keep information secure, but it will also separate your company’s personal network and information from the guest network where customers browse and potentially send data on.

Say no to new technology and software.

A busy season is the worst time to try out new technology at a business. Even if the technology promises to increase sales, speed up checkout times or save a business and/or customers a lot of money, it’s not a good idea to try out a new method at a peak sales time. In fact, the opposite might occur and the new technology could crash a company’s IT foundation or alter aspects of it that may not be recognizable until further investigation takes place. Solving any issues related to new technology can potentially take a lot of time, and time is something most business owners lack during the holiday season. Try out new technology during a slow season where it can be thoroughly monitored and won’t affect sales as much.