4 Popular Security Suites For Small Businesses

The threat landscape is ever-changing, and so your security software must keep up. The best security suites for small businesses offers a plethora of different features to keep your business safe from a wide range of cyberattacks.

It’s no longer just about virus defence. Ransomware is now considered a significant threat, with many attacks against large companies, revealed in the media. However, smaller companies are at equal risk, if not more, as they tend not to have the relevant systems to recover from such an attack quickly.

For this reason, ransomware is a huge threat to small businesses. Up to 28% of all cyberattacks target small businesses, and up to 60% of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) report that their small business clients were hit in 2020.

4 Security Suites For Small Businesses

The first line of defence against malware attacks is a formidable antivirus system. Below are four popular security suite choices for small businesses that combine several defence tools to boost your IT security.

1. Kaspersky Small Office Security

Overview

Kaspersky Small Office Security was designed with small businesses in mind, protecting your organisation’s devices, including workstations, servers, and mobile devices. It operates discreetly in the background, with minimal configuration so that your staff can continue with their regular duties. 

Small businesses are most likely on the move, with technicians, reps, and other personnel working in the field. Kaspersky secures company and personal mobile devices and smartphones. It even includes a feature that locates, locks, or wipes a missing device if needed. 

Ransomware Protection

Kaspersky has ransomware protection built-in, and we rate this feature highly. Should an employee click on a malicious link and ransomware tries to encrypt your files, a backup is automatically taken before your files can be encrypted.

Data Security

To secure your data, Kaspersky can encrypt the data on your laptops, desktops and servers so that that it’s unreadable to cybercriminals should they attempt to access your propriety information. Of course, the system protects against unauthorised access by storing encrypted data in protected vaults.

Automated Backups

The system also maintains an automated backup file schedule to ensure that you always have current backups of your essential data. When needed, it also provides digital file shredding to erase data permanently. 

Additional Features

• Safe Money – protects your business’s credit card information and banking details for secure online banking and e-commerce.
• Ransomware protection – even when one of your staff inadvertently clicks on a malicious link, Kaspersky automatically creates a backup copy of unencrypted files.
• Blocks suspicious downloads and malicious websites.
• “Do not track” feature – monitors and blocks websites from spying on your staff or monitoring activity.
• Software updater – provides notification of new updates available for your installed applications.
• Account takeover prevention – notifies you if your file server has a weak password or if your password is outdated.
• Password manager – secures your passwords in one vault, so all you must remember is one.
• Customer web portal – enables you to check your license status and expiration date.

2. Norton Small Business

Overview

Norton Small Business is another single solution that protects your in-office computers as well as your mobile devices. Norton security tailors to each machine, so your PCs and Macs are protected from cyber threats and identity theft, and your tablets and smartphones are protected from unauthorised access and loss.

Customised Protection

Users can customise their protection to fit their needs, allowing you to protect whatever combination of employees and devices your company requires. This customisation also allows you to maintain your online security as your business grows. 

You won’t need to invest in a more complex system as your needs change. Norton Small Business allows you to add protection when you need it and on a prorated basis. So, you will never pay for any protection you aren’t using.

Centralised Management

Setup is easy and, once it’s complete, you can manage your in-house and remote security from one central location because it’s a cloud-based service. There is no specialised hardware to install for management. To add a device, send an email to the device’s user that contains instructions for adding the device to the protection plan. 

24/7 Support

Support is Nortons’ strong point; we have found it excellent. They offer round-the-clock support for its services for all users, not just administrators. Any employee can call at any time and receive help from a certified Norton technician. They can report lost or stolen devices at any hour, and Norton can lock the device immediately. The same applies to any performance issues. Someone will be available at any hour.

Additional Features

Some additional features include the following:

• PC cloud backup –helps prevent the loss of files due to hard drive failures or ransomware by automatically storing them in the cloud.
• Safe web – allows you to view a website’s safety ratings before you visit the site.
• Safe search engine – focuses on online security and alerts you when a site is unsafe.
• Password manager – allows you to use complex passwords and store them more securely in an encrypted online vault. All you need is one master password to unlock your vault.
• Secure VPN – encrypts your information and protects your online privacy.
• Dark web monitoring – protects against identity theft by searching the dark web and notifies you if your information is found.

3. McAfee Small Business Security

Overview

McAfee Small Business Security provides a comprehensive security protection suite that allows you to focus on business operations without worrying whether your organisation’s data and devices are at risk. It also offers flexible licensing, so you can scale as your business grows.

Multi-Device Protection

McAfee protects your business devices from the most current online threats. It guards your Macs, PCs, smartphones, and tablets against ransomware, viruses, and other forms of malware. The security system safeguards your customer’s data and additional company-sensitive information from hackers so that you can keep your devices running at peak performance without being overcome by malware.

Flexible Licensing

Licensing for McAfee Small Business Security includes up to five workstations (either PC or Mac) plus unlimited Android and iOS devices. You can increase this number as your business grows. Shielding your Android devices includes antivirus protection as well as the option to track, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen device.

Comprehensive Security

The system protects your data using data and email protection combined with web and firewall protection. It blocks spam and other malicious emails from reaching your inboxes. Further, employees see colour-coded safety ratings that warn them about malicious websites before they click, preventing hackers from compromising your computers in the first place.

Additional Features

Some additional features include the following:

• Virus Removal Service: If they cannot remove a virus from your supported device, they refund you the amount you paid for your current term subscription.
• Safe Connect VPN: Free and unlimited access to their VPN wireless network.
• Technical support – comprehensive protection and technical support with easy, flexible security management.
• Easy installation – administrators can install to employee devices by emailing install links or by logging into McAfee My Account on each device. 
• Supported operating systems – protects Windows and Android operating systems and all major browsers like Firefox, Chrome Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

4. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security

Overview

GravityZone Business Security by Bitdefender accommodates small to medium businesses. It combines machine learning and heuristics with other techniques to protect against malware and other threats, including ransomware, phishing, exploits, and zero-days.

You can manage your servers (both physical and virtual) and workstations through a single console. The system also alerts you to any risk factors as it discovers them and sets security priorities.

Ransomware Prevention and Mitigation

Bitdefender offers administrative tools to help you keep ransomware out of your network. GravityZone’s anti-ransomware set creates automatic, tamperproof backup copies of your files (without using shadow copies). 

It blocks and prevents malware through its Network Attack Defence, Machine Learning Anti-Malware, and Advanced Anti-Exploit programming. It also monitors processes in real-time through its Advanced Threat Control program to mitigate risks.

Multi-Layered Defence

Protect every desktop, laptop, and server with layered security that continuously monitors your running processes and executes malware blocking, disinfecting, quarantining malicious content, and rollbacks when needed.

Web-Based Security

As with the other options mentioned previously, you won’t need to install any additional hardware to run GravityZone, nor will you need dedicated servers or staff to administer it. Use the resources and equipment you already have in place. All administrative functions can be done on-site or remotely through Bitdefender’s cloud.

Additional Features

• Automated monitoring – centralises security features into a single console. You don’t have to update or monitor security activities manually. 
• Your employees don’t have to perform updates or monitor daily security activities.
• Endpoint risk management – GravityZone identifies, assesses, and remediates endpoint weaknesses in your network, thus reducing organisational risk; serves to harden endpoint surface area by discovering and prioritising OS and software misconfigurations.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning – combat within the threat landscape using Bitdefender’s proven technologies, resulting in better detection rates and fewer false positives.
• Cloud Security Intelligence – Over 500 million protected machines makes the Bitdefender Global Protective Network the largest and most powerful security cloud, performing 11 billion queries per day using machine learning to detect threats.

Conclusion

One common cybersecurity misconception is that small businesses are less at risk of cyberattacks as hackers tend to target large corporations instead. Smaller companies are targeted because cybercriminals realise they often lack the level of security to thwart a well-executed and cyberattack.

While simple antivirus software alone doesn’t protect your system, a feature-rich security software suite can provide effective protection against viruses, ransomware, and other forms of malware. Each suite we have reviewed has its strong points. If ransomware protection is your main requirement, Bitdefender and Kaspersky would currently be my two choices. For a growing company, McAfee and Norton scale better, have granular centralised management and excellent technical support.

As your company grows, you may find you require a more tailored security solution than any one individual suite can offer. Securus Communications can provide a bespoke security solution to protect user devices, the cloud, immutable backups with air-gap technology, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and more. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of your security requirements in further detail. 

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