It’s Free: Security Doesn’t Have to Cost a Cent

by Penny Hoelscher on February 5, 2019

Statistics suggest that between 43 percent and 70 percent of cyber-attacks are aimed at small businesses. The average cost to a small business in 2017 was $2,235,000. Up to 60 percent of small businesses shut down within six months of an attack, as they simply do not have the infrastructure to survive the financial losses.

Security solutions for SMBs are sometimes a grudge purchase. The below graph shows why SMBs are targeted by cybercriminals — without security, they are sitting ducks!

IT security controls used by small business in the United States as of March 2017 (Source: Statista)

Can Free and Open-Source Software Work for Your Small Business Security?

While free software won’t always give you as many features as paid solutions, small businesses with few assets may not need more than the basics. Why pay for overkill? In fact, bloated products may slow an SMB’s system and can be complicated to administer, perhaps even requiring a full-time person to manage.

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The below products have been chosen because they are free, easy-to-use, have a GUI (we have excluded command-line interface products) and are free for business use. Always read the licensing agreement to make sure you can legally use each piece of software commercially.

Most operating systems have built-in security features. Your first call is to research how yours works and ensure it is enabled. How-To Geek has the lowdown on built-in security for popular OSes.

In this article, we outline a plan for SMBs to take advantage of free security resources when planning a security strategy and/or before committing to paid software.