This spring, BBB serving Greater Maryland is launching a free, one-hour program to educate non-technical business owners and principals about the need for cybersecurity best practices. The program is designed to help small-to-large businesses start to understand and manage cybersecurity risks.

It will be offered at locations across Central Maryland and available, at no cost, to local business and civic groups with 20 or more attendees.

Cybersecurity for your business is not only about adding layers of security technology. The 5-Step Approach to Better Business Cybersecurity, based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, represents an approach that applies to the specifics of your business, helping you understand how best to identify and protect your business’s vital data and technology assets, and how to detect, respond to and recover from a cybersecurity incident.

This training program is a collaboration between BBB and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and includes the following five steps.

  • Step 1: Identify
    Take inventory of key technologies you use and know what information you need to rebuild your infrastructure from scratch. Inventory the key data you use and store and keep track of likely threats.
  • Step 2: Protect
    Assess what protective measures you need to have in place to be as prepared as possible for a cyberincident. Put protective policies in place for technologies, data and users, and ensure that your contracts with cloud and other technology service providers include the same protections.
  • Step 3: Detect
    Put measures in place to alert you of current or imminent threats to system integrity, or loss or compromise of data. Train your users to identify and speedily report incidents.
  • Step 4: Respond
    Make and practice an incidence response plan to contain an attack or incident and maintain business operations in the short term.
  • Step 5: Recover
    Know what to do to return to normal business operations after an incident. Protect sensitive data and your business reputation over the long term.

For more information on BBB’s 5 Steps to Better Business Cybersecurity, sponsored by EZShield, or to request a presentation for your organization, contact BBB Communication Coordinator Brittany Martin at 410-332-0696.

Angie Barnett is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland. She can be reached at 410-347-3990 and [email protected].