10/9/2025 | DELAWARE SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER
october: observing security awareness month
Why Small Businesses Should Pay Attention
Every October, Security Awareness Month highlights the importance of protecting sensitive information and strengthening defenses. Security is everyone’s business and should be an integral part of every business’s culture. Protecting information, systems, and people is not only a job for IT experts but for everyone.
What It Means for Small Businesses
Hackers are not only targeting large organizations that have big-ticket wins. Hackers are looking for ‘hacks of opportunity’, searching for any vulnerable target. Small businesses are often easier targets because attackers find fewer defenses. Security Awareness Month is an opportunity to pause and be mindful of cybersecurity in both your business and everyday life.
Ask questions like:
- Are we training our staff on indicators of phishing and other social engineering threats?
- Do we know how our data is stored and protected?
- If something went wrong tomorrow, how would we respond?
- How long could we sustain a disruption to our business?
These are not just technical questions – these are questions about keeping your business operational and resilient. A single cyber incident can cause lost revenue, downtime, or damage to your reputation, all of which can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to overcome for some small businesses.
Where to Start
If your business does not have a cybersecurity plan, it’s not too late. Start small, focus on behavior, and build a security-aware culture step by step:
- Talk about security openly and often. Encourage asking questions and reporting suspicious activity.
- Limit access so each person only has what they need to complete their responsibilities.
- Leadership should model good habits like using MFA, updating passwords, and attending security training.
You should also implement basic protections:
- Use strong passwords on every platform or login your team may use, and turn on multi-factor authentication.
- Update software regularly. Often, attacks exploit old versions of software.
- Back up your data on a regular schedule. This means making a copy of your files and storing it separately so you can restore them if the originals are lost, damaged, or stolen. A backup can be the difference between a quick recovery and a costly disaster.
Building a cybersecurity program doesn’t mean hiring a full-time IT staff. It means creating a repeatable structure for how your business manages risk. You can:
- Assign responsibility: Identify a point person who oversees security practices and vendor relationships.
- Write down your policies: Keep a short document that covers passwords, backups, access, and what to do during an incident.
- Train regularly: Schedule short refreshers every few months.
- Test your response: Run a tabletop exercise or simple “what if” scenario
- Review annually: Revisit your plan, update contact lists, and adjust for new threats or changes in your tech.
Educate Your Team
This October, Delaware SBDC’s Data Assured Program is teaming up with We Know Cyber to host the Hack Attack Webinar Series. Across the three sessions, you will learn how cyber attackers work, what a live attack looks like, and how to best respond. These webinars combine stories, teaching, and live demonstrations so you can better understand how attackers think and quickly recognize the signs you may be in danger.
Don’t miss the opportunity to participate–register for the live Hack Attack sessions or access the on-demand LMS recordings through the Data Assured website. It’s a quick way to give your team real-world awareness and strengthen your business’s security mindset.
A Chance to Build Resilience
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is about empowering businesses and people to act quickly in the face of a threat. With resources like the Hack Attack series and the Data Assured Workbook, Delaware’s Small Business Development Center provides small businesses with the support they need to build a program that fits their size and resources.
This October, take the opportunity to learn, prepare, and protect. The investment you make in cybersecurity today will build the resilience and trust your business carries forward tomorrow. Don’t wait until after an incident — take advantage of these programs now to strengthen your defenses and build lasting customer trust.
Join us throughout October 2025 for our Hack Attack series – register today! Visit our events calendar >
Register for the Hack Attack live sessions:
October 2025 Events Calendar >
Hosted by We Know Cyber & Delaware SBDC
DATA ASSURED
Data Assured is Delaware’s Small Business Development Center’s premier cybersecurity and technology program designed to educate and support small businesses.