Small Businesses Face Unique Cybersecurity Risks

Loren Cruz F24 aims to bridge the digital divide and uplift small business owners. As a digital equity fellow at Prosperity Lab, a nonprofit organization supporting entrepreneurs in California, she focuses on that clear mission. 

“I support the full participation of individuals and business owners in society and the economy through the use of digital technologies,” said Cruz. “One of the main issue areas that I've seen among many business owners is the lack of understanding of very basic cyber risk or cybersecurity frameworks.”

As a career diplomat, Cruz was familiar with The Fletcher School’s Global Master of Arts Program. The program’s flexibility suited her from her vantage in California. When she enrolled as a student, she was eager to think about opportunities to apply what she learned in the program to her fellowship and was drawn to the program’s focus on cyber risk. 

During a final research project in Josephine Wolff’s Cyber Policy and Analysis Risk course, she connected with two peers, Mónica Rosales F24 and Candice Pitts F24, and saw an opportunity to create a digital toolkit to help small businesses reduce their cyber risk.

Thinking Like an Entrepreneur

Rosales came to the GMAP program with a background in both the private and nonprofit sectors in Chile. This gave her an understanding of entrepreneurs’ blind spots. 

“I come from an entrepreneur family,” said Rosales. “My father has a small business in the south of Chile. I’m an impact mentor and work with small entrepreneurs to create and improve their business models and provide them tools to strengthen their business.”

“I saw that this issue of cybersecurity was very relevant because it’s not a variable entrepreneurs consider in their business model,” she added. “They tend to be reactive to problems.”

According to the United Nations, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) “account for 90% of businesses, more than 70% of employment and 50% of GDP worldwide.”

“They are the backbone of national economies, so any efforts to improve their management and enhance their resilience can have a significant impact,” said Rosales. “This motivated us to make a small contribution to this ecosystem.”

The group’s main objective was to provide a clear understanding of cybersecurity risks for small businesses. Many cyber attacks against larger corporations, Rosales noted, occur through small businesses with which these larger organizations associate. 

Collaborating with Pitts, Belize’s Ambassador to Taiwan, they began to develop educational materials, covering everything from password protection to resources catered to small businesses. The multifactor authentication platform, Duo Mobile, for example, provides free services to businesses with fewer than 10 employees. 

“With the proliferation of technology in today’s business landscape, investing in a cyber risk plan is no longer optional, but necessary,” said Pitts. “Requisite investments in cybersecurity help to prevent financial losses, safeguard against systems vulnerabilities, protect customers’ data and ensure business continuity.” 

Support for Small Businesses in Northern California

After the group completed their project for class, they sought opportunities to disseminate their findings. Cruz connected the team with the Northern California Small Business Development Center (SBDC). The SBDC adopted the team’s work for use as free resources with their business community. 

“It has been valuable for the Northern California SBDC, because it very simply explains the risks and provides an easy-to-apply framework on a very small budget,” said Cruz.  

The team continues to ideate on opportunities to raise digital awareness within various communities. Rosales hopes to find ways to use this framework to support nonprofit organizations in Chile, which process and house large amounts of user data. Pitts also sees that the project can be of use to other communities worldwide.

“‘The Cyber Risk Plan for Small Businesses’ makes a meaningful intervention in cyber policy and can be referenced by small businesses not just in California, and other states in the United States, but also in upper-middle-income and high-income countries, such as Belize and Chile respectively,” said Pitts. 

“Collaborating on this project at Fletcher with Loren and Mónica was such a pleasure,” she added. “We all drew from our respective expertise in policy drafting, business, diplomacy and political science to conceptualize our ‘Cyber Risk Plan for Small Businesses.’”

Read more about Fletcher’s Global Master of Arts Program.