The new year is a great time to reflect on your business goals and allocation of resources for the coming year. While making these decisions, it’s important to consider your business’s cybersecurity posture and implement strategies to protect your assets, employees, and customers. Here are 9 actionable New Year’s resolutions to help your business stay secure in 2024.
1. Strengthen Password Policies
Ensure employees use strong, unique passwords for all work accounts. Implementing a password manager and requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) across your organization will help ease this burden and reduce weak-password risks.
2. Keep Systems and Software Updated (A Note on Windows 10)
Outdated software is a hacker’s playground. Regularly update operating systems, applications, and firmware to patch vulnerabilities as soon as updates are available.
On this topic, we would be remiss to not mention that Microsoft is ending support for Windows as of October 2025. You may want to start budgeting for hardware upgrades and beginning this transition now to ease the strain on business processes and cashflow. (It’s easier to upgrade a few devices at a time than do them all in one fell swoop.)
3. Provide Employee Cybersecurity Awareness Training (SAT)
Employees are often the weakest link in cybersecurity. Conduct regular training to educate staff about phishing, social engineering, and other cyber threats. For some, this is required for cybersecurity insurance. For others, this is required for compliance reasons, such as PCI compliance. If you do not currently have SAT in place, talk to your IT Service provider about implementation.
4. Conduct a Network Security Audit
Review your network infrastructure to identify potential vulnerabilities. One way to accomplish this is through a penetration test. (These can be expensive! And there are predatory orgs out there selling “penetration tests” that are only a scan and not thorough! Be cautious and do your homework.) Use the data gleaned from this assessment to update firewalls, review access points, and ensure all devices are secured.
5. Update Monitoring for Business Accounts for Suspicious Activity
Set up alerts to detect unusual activity in email, banking, and other critical systems. Early detection can prevent minor incidents from becoming major breaches.
This year, we have added an opt-in SaaS alerting and complimentary Dark Web scans for all clients. Having automated eyes and ears looking for inconsistencies in your data and accounts can help your IT team take action when incidents occur.
6. Prioritize Regulatory Compliance
Understand the cybersecurity regulations applicable to your business. Big changes in 2025 include CMMC 2.0 for DoD contractors, more rigorous PCI compliance (if you do any credit cards transactions), and FTC requirements for CPA firms, car dealerships, and others who handle personal financial data (each of which need a WISP and annual penetration tests). Ensure your policies and practices align with compliance requirements to avoid legal penalties.
7. Invest in Advanced Cybersecurity Tools
Looking ahead at a new year is a great time to reassess if you have all the cybersecurity tools that you need to keep your business protected (especially in light of the regulatory compliance we just spoke about). Not sure what you might need? Reach out and we can review your current network architecture and security goals.
8. Dispose of Data and Hardware Securely
Looking at updating devices usually means retiring old devices. Use data-wiping tools and partner with certified e-waste recyclers to protect your data. These practices should be detailed in the data usage policy for your business.
9. Test Incident Response Plans
Don’t wait for a breach to test your incident response plan. Conduct regular simulations to ensure your team knows how to respond quickly and effectively. Don’t have an incident response plan? You should!
We’ve harped on it before, but cybersecurity breaches can result in financial loss, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. By prioritizing these resolutions in 2025, your business can stay ahead of threats, protect critical assets, and maintain customer trust.
Which of these resolutions is most important to you? Let us know if you need help building a tailored cybersecurity strategy for your business in the coming year!
