Startups

Startups are integral to American economic success, generating almost two million new jobs in 2018 and experiencing significant market growth as business owners tap new technologies to increase brand reach and impact. But keeping a small business in the black isn’t easy — 40% of startups fail before their fourth year and just over 50% make it through year five. While challenges such as staffing, marketing and customer churn are a continuing challenge, the rise of tech-savvy consumers has created a paradox. Even as digital transformation empowers business success, it introduces key security risks. Here’s how HALOCK Security Labs’ cyber security for startups can help reduce the risk of infosec incidents, discover potential weaknesses and improve overall defense.


Startup Cybersecurity Risk


Start Small, Think Big

It’s easy for startups to view their IT as inherently safe — after all, why would hackers bother with smaller businesses when large-scale operations handle huge volumes of valuable data? IT security for startups may also take a back seat given the sheer number of mission-critical tasks that require owners’ attention. If technology services are working “well enough,” why make changes? Here’s the hard truth: Startups are often in the line of fire for digital compromise precisely because they don’t have built-in cyber security controls or well-articulated infosec policies. Hackers looking to test new threat vectors or grab consumer data may prioritize startups since there’s a lower chance of attacks being detected, identified and mitigated. Clearly, startups can’t afford to ignore IT security.

REGULATORY UPDATE: The SEC’s new rules on Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure require public companies to describe their cybersecurity programs in their periodic reporting and how they manage RISK.

Rocket Startup Cybersecurity


Your Startup Partner

HALOCK Security Labs offers multiple cyber security solutions for startups, including:

  • Risk Based Threat Assessment: Improve protection against the five MITRE ATT&CK Types. Prioritize security controls to enhance or implement using the best threat data the cybersecurity community offers, leveraging the HALOCK Industry Threat (HIT) Index, a model for estimating the most likely (and least likely) ways your organization will be hit by a cybersecurity or information security attack.
  • HALOCK’s Cloud Security Assessment: Gain insight on your risks. The assessment provides a review of Azure, AWS, and Google (GCP) cloud environments to identify risk and recommends how to remediate them.
  • ConsultingOur IT security consulting for startups identifies key issues, suggests necessary remediation and includes custom-built solutions to meet business needs.
  • Compliance From privacy regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR to startup PCI compliance, our experts ensure your data handling and storage processes meet evolving expectations. PCI DSS v4.0 is here, and it is essential to understand how the new requirements impact your organization.
  • Penetration testing Not all vulnerabilities are obvious. HALOCK Security Labs’ penetration testing helps find and secure potential failure points. Verify your technical safeguards with external network, internal network, internal wireless, web application, social engineering, assumed breach, adversary simulation, and remediation verification penetration testing.
  • Security management Startups are often long on ideas and short on time. Our security management services help streamline your IT environment and protect your business purpose.
  • Incident Response – When a breach does occur, you need to address the attack immediately, contain it, and remediate the threat. Having a trusted, expert incident response team to stop, fix, and an ongoing incident response process and plan to keep your data secure.
  • Mergers & Acquisition (M&A): As part of the due diligence process of an M&A, organizations must understand the risk and security profile of their partner or target company. You must determine what liabilities or risks can arise under the other company’s cybersecurity program. With HALOCK’s M&A program, we can help you through the entire process from pre-acquisition to post-acquisition to identify risks, remediation steps, and establish reasonable security.
  • Third Party Risk Management (TPRM)/Vendor Risk ManagementEnsure third-party partners are aligned with your organization’s risk controls. Vendors and contractors serve as an extension of your group. They represent you and should operate under your business requirements. A recent Panorays study revealed 41% of organizations are not sure if their suppliers were out of compliance in the past year. It also indicated that half of the respondents cited third party risk as one of the top 5 items in their risk register and expect this risk to increase. A required best practice is to always conduct a supplier risk assessment to keep your vendors on point with your security posture. HALOCK can help build and manage a specific program for your new environment.
  • Risk Assessments – Regulations require your safeguards be reasonable to your organization, customers, and partners. With many frameworks available, how do you establish your acceptable risk? The Duty of Care Risk Assessment (DoCRA) helps you define a balanced security strategy factoring in compliance and safeguards based on your specific business and objectives. With the release of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Cybersecurity rules on disclosure, it’s essential that you regularly review your risk profile.
  • Privacy CCPA is the most sweeping legislation to date in the U.S. that concerns the protection of personal information. It broadens the definition of what constitutes personal information and gives California citizens greater control over what companies can do with their personal data. The California privacy law includes the right to exempt their own personal information from being shared or purchased on the open market. Understand the impact this change and other states’ requirements have on your organization.

Purpose-Driven Protection

You’re single-minded about your business. It’s what drives your success and sets you apart from the competition. At HALOCK Security Labs, security is our passion — and it’s what underpins our purpose-driven protection services. We recognize that security is all about balance. You need to defend data without inconveniencing customers and secure networks without making it impossible for staff to get their work done. Our experts are committed to finding the balance that works for you by identifying key risks, eliminating potential vulnerabilities and streamlining security operations.