What Every Founder Needs To Know About Cybersecurity

Being a founder is overwhelming — and cybersecurity is an especially unwelcome pressure that many startups underestimate. This guest post from Havoc Shield founder Phil Leslie breaks down the essentials every founder needs to protect their company from evolving threats.

By Guest Contributor: Phil Leslie , Founder @Havoc Shield Being a founder is overwhelming. The pressures arrive from all directions: raising capital, attracting customers, recruiting employees, nurturing company culture, and more. An especially unwelcome pressure comes in the form of the evolving challenge of achieving strong cybersecurity. Unfortunately, it’s an area where very few founders happen to have prior experience, and also an area where virtually no startups choose to make a dedicated hire. In this post, we’ll talk about how to navigate cybersecurity challenges like a pro, even without the experience or the staff. Setting the Stage Security is a team sport. Founders should assume that every member of their team will (at one point or another) be on the receiving end of phishing emails. Every team member will also (at some point) find out that an account they have on a 3rd party site is part of a data breach. And every team member will find themselves doing at least some work from a less-than-professional home or vacation network connection with questionable router settings. These are just a few of the realities that founders need to come to terms with to set the stage for involving the team positively in cybersecurity efforts. So, how should founders set the stage for involving the team? It’s easier than it sounds: tell them -- in your own words that are in your authentic voice -- that security is a team sport and that you’ll be asking for their help. Bonus points if you open up about the last couple times you’ve been worried about a cybersecurity challenge that had the potential to be a big problem for the company. Extra bonus points if you open up about how you worried that a simple cybersecurity mistake could put at risk all the great work the team has done together. Your authentic voice is crucial here; employees at founder-led businesses can sniff out corporate-speak from a mile away. The Opening Act We know many founders that are so obsessive about ad

By Madelyn Rutter at TechNexus Venture Collaborative