Think about who, what, why, when:

• What data do you store?

• What data do you collect from your customers?

• Where do you store that data? (Paper? Laptop? Cloud?)

• Who in your business has access to that data?

• What do you do with that data?

• Where do you send that data?

Make lists of data, people, software, logins, hardware, devices:

• Answer the Five Knows in notes to yourself.

• Tip: If you have a Password Manager, use that as the list of Software, and make notes about what the software does, who accesses it, how much it costs, when is it due for renewal.

• Check your Router for which devices are connected to it, as the starting point for which hardware you have. Don’t forget backup / redundant devices.

Start some Registers:

• A Register of Software used

• A Register of all Laptops, Phones, iPads, and any device connected to the internet. Include your home if you do a lot of work at home.

• A register of all places data is stored, and what data is stored there Eg Dropbox, Google Drive, Xero…

• Keep these registers in a place and format that can be easily updated.

• Investigate getting a tool that will scan your network to show all the devices connected.

Think about what would you like to be doing better?

Write down something about what being better at cybersecurity will look like.

Plan how you are going to bring your staff along on this journey.

Read the Australian Government Small Business Cybersecurity Guide.

• Identify the areas you really don’t understand.

• Ask for some help.

Decide if SMB1001 Gold self attestation may be good fit for your business.

• Get your Technical Specialist onboard with your plan.

Heading for ISO27001? Wanting to do more government Work?

• Decide which level you would like to get to, and within what time frame.

Have a read of your current Policies and Procedures.

• Does anything stand out as needing to change?

Gather all your current policies and procedures in one place, as you will be updating them.

Think about having a centralised place to store and maintain policies and procedures. There are many options.

Think about risk in your business.

• What keeps you up at night?

• What would you do if something happened to a key piece of software or hardware?

• What if you lost your phone? Can you even pay payroll?

Start to write down some of the risk scenarios you may face as a business.

• Things going wrong

• Key people not being available

• What happened during the pandemic?

Plan to implement a risk register in the business, along with all that entails (eg updating it regularly). There are great apps to help with this.

What regulations does your business have to follow?

• Privacy Act?

• Notifiable Data Breaches?

What parts of the Privacy Act scare you? What parts don’t you understand? What do you need to ask your Technical Specialist about?

How are you staying up to date with legislation that may affect your business?

What other regulations are impacting you, eg your Suppliers or people you supply to may be subject to regulations that affect the way you do business with them.

What parts of the new Cybersecurity Legislation Package (2024) do you need to be factoring into your business?

You are going to need to start maintaining Supplier Agreements, and managing your supply chain, along with being responsible for understanding and complying with all the legislation and regulations that impact your sector.

What help do you need to get this done?

As you go through your day, think about your passwords.

• What is this password protecting? (your banking, payroll, client documents).

• Is it a good password?

• When did you last change it?

• How did you know this password? (eg memory, stored in your browser, written on a post it note).

• Is it unique? (yes, really unique!).

• Who else, apart from you, uses this same login and password? (eg do staff members who have left the business still know this password?).

• Does this login also have Multi Factor Authentication?

• What type of MFA (eg sends a text message, uses an authenticator app).

• Change any passwords that are not unique.

• Change any passwords that have not been changed in 12 months.

• Turn on MFA everywhere you can. If there is an option for MFA that is not text or email based, then choose that first.

• Ensure all Social Media accounts, and your main Email / Office account has MFA.

• Make a note in your password manager for those passwords where you can’t use MFA (eg banking), but what protection do they have (eg text message for new suppliers).

It may be time to start setting up Single Sign On (SSO) for your main systems. Both Microsoft and Google can be set up for SSO.

• Also think about hardware keys (eg Yubikey) for your main accounts rather than push or authenticator based MFA on your phone.

Start using a Password Manager, even the free version of LastPass.

• Think about getting a team plan of LastPass or 1Password and get your whole team, and even family onboard.

• Set up a long passphrase for logging into your Password Manager - but don’t forget it! There is no way to re-set your password for a Password Manager if you don’t already know your existing password.

• Ensure passwords are not saved in your browser anymore (the setup for the password manager should help with this).

• Set up your Password Manager to be on your Phone and in your Browser.

• When you need to share a password with someone, how do you do it? (

Get onto the team plan of LastPass or 1Password.

• Ensure no passwords are saved in your browser.

• Use the change password feature of your password manager to update passwords.

• Shared logins are marked as such, and shared with only the team members that need them.

• Each team member should have their own logins to all services.

• Get the family onto a Password Manager also.

• Keep business and personal passwords separate (eg LastPass for personal and family sharing, 1Password for the team).

• Who has access to your business passwords in case of your death or incapacitation - especially the passwords that are needed to have the business run in your absence.

• Store backup login codes separately to your logins.

• Set up Time Based Authentication (TOTP) separately to your Password Manager.

• Eliminate Shared Logins where possible.

• Ensure Logins and Passwords are disabled as soon as a team member leaves.

Just as you have had to check what you didn’t understand and ask for help, start this process with your team also.

https://www.cyber.gov.au/learn-basics

• No question is too silly,

• No one will be penalised for asking a question about something that looks strange,

• Let the team know that you are all together embarking on a journey to get the business better at cybersecurity.

• Talk about what ideas they have, and what areas they see as needing improvement.

• Come to an agreement on some baseline rules:

  • No more hidden data - eg spinning up a spreadsheet and then maintaining it weekly forevermore.

  • No more signing up to a new service without approval.

  • No more emailing documents and spreadsheets to anyone, including another team member.

  • No more taking data home on USB sticks.

• Take the Quiz, share the results with the team, and talk through the answers.

• Talk them through the next steps.

  • Passwords

  • Access Control

  • Application Control

• When they groan, and complain, remind them what you discovered in Step 0 - how does getting better at cybersecurity fit with your business values?

You may want a few key team members to become “cyber wardens” but take the course yourself first. Be aware that this is not everything you need to know, and it can be a bit too simplistic at times.

Talk to your IT specialist about what cybersecurity training they recommend.

Never recommend training that shows your team as the “weakest link” or the “first line of defence” or any other scare tactics. It’s your job to get your business to a position that a team member clicking on a link does not grind your business to a halt.

Training must also include Data Privacy and your obligations under the Privacy Act.

Cybersecurity training is a core part of your business.

Your team has cybersecurity training as one of their measurable points.

You may have cybersecurity training included as part of some of the software you have already.

But just watching a few videos per year, or watching a video if you happened to click on a phishing test that your IT provider sent out, is not enough.

Cybersecurity and data privacy is a key part of business as usual for you and your team, and it is a key part of your business values, and therefore you are helping your suppliers and customers with their cybersecurity challenges also.