Protect Your Small Business from Hacks: 9 Cybersecurity Tips & Best Practices
Published Date:
07 Nov, 2025
Updated Date:
10 Jun, 2026
I noticed in August 2025 that there was a significant increase in the number of hacks experienced by agency owners and their clients in our network.
And because I don’t want a single founder, business owner, or solopreneur to be operating without a strong, secure foundation, I’ve created the following free guide to walk you through the essential cybersecurity practices we use to protect small businesses, online trainers, educators, and coaches making 6- or 7-figure revenues online.
9 Essential Cybersecurity Tips For Small Training Businesses You Can Implement Today
The following cybersecurity best practices cover every layer of protection from passwords to team-wide practices. Follow them carefully and consider implementing them across all devices and platforms used by your team.
Consider it your very own Security Breach Response Plan!
These are the actionable, hands-on steps we implement with clients at The Digital Navigator. We’ve proven they work, and now you can follow them yourself to secure your business and your client ecosystem.
1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords Across All Accounts
Passwords are your first line of defense. Weak or reused passwords make it easy for hackers to gain access to critical accounts, which can quickly cascade into bigger problems.
For example, one of our membership site clients had reused passwords across multiple platforms.
After moving to a password manager and updating all their passwords to unique, complex credentials, they haven’t had a single cybersecurity incident in over a year!
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
2. Turn On Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Wherever Possible
Usernames and passwords alone are no longer enough when it comes to authentication security.
Hackers can often buy stolen login details on the dark web for just a few dollars! That’s why I always recommend clients (and you) turn on multi-factor authentication.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) acts like a double security lock on your accounts. So, even if someone has your password, they’ll still need that second key to get in.
For instance, one of our clients thought their email was secure because they had a strong password.
But after a phishing attack exposed their credentials, the attacker still couldn’t log in because MFA was enabled. That one extra layer stopped what could have been a devastating data breach.
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
And remember: Be suspicious of emails requesting payments, banking updates, or login credentials.
Even legitimate-looking emails can be spoofed. Commercial email services often provide phishing warnings—use them!
3. Keep All Software and Plugins Up to Date
Outdated software is one of the easiest ways for hackers to break in. Every piece of software you use (from your website plugins to your operating system) is a potential entry point.
When updates are ignored, you’re essentially leaving the door open for attackers who are actively scanning the web for known vulnerabilities.
We’ve seen this firsthand with a client whose WordPress site hadn’t been updated in months. One outdated plugin contained a well-documented vulnerability, and within hours their site was infected with malicious code that redirected visitors to spam websites.
Yet, after cleaning the site, we put an update plan in place…and they haven’t had an issue since!
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
Finally, remove any unnecessary plugins or software. Not only will this move keep you safe, but it will save you from more technical issues down the road, and may even improve your website’s functionality.
4. Back Up Your Data Regularly
Even with the best cybersecurity practices, things can still go wrong. And when they do? A good backup can mean the difference between a minor hiccup and a complete disaster.
Whether it’s a cyberattack, a server crash, or even accidental deletion, having reliable backups ensures you can restore your systems quickly and keep business moving.
Actually, this reminds me: we once worked with a business that had their entire customer database locked up in a ransomware attack!
They were told to pay thousands of dollars to get their files back. Luckily, because we had set them up with daily automated backups stored securely off-site, they didn’t have to pay a dime.
We restored their system within a few hours, and their operations were back on track the same day. Without those backups, they would’ve faced weeks of downtime…and the potential loss of every client record!
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
Think of backups as your business safety net: you hope you’ll never need it, but when the unexpected happens, you’ll be beyond grateful it’s there!
Learn how we manage your website's security
Backups, firewalls, hosting, and more!
5. Avoid Risky Emojis on Your Website
It might sound odd, but certain emoji characters and third party emoji embeds can introduce real cybersecurity issues.
That’s because Emoji are a different kind of code, and when they are pulled from external sources or inserted without sanitization, they have been implicated in vulnerabilities that allowed attackers to access databases or execute malicious code.
For example, there are reported incidents where emoji-related vulnerabilities were implicated in larger compromises. We also saw one membership site client using custom emoji assets that introduced an unexpected exposure.
After we removed the emoji sources and replaced them with safer alternatives (like those from FontAwesome), the risk vanished immediately.
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
6. Install Antivirus on All Devices
Malware doesn’t just target computers, it hits phones and tablets too.
Yet many online trainers and solopreneurs forget that their mobile devices are often just as vulnerable as desktops or laptops.
If one device in your ecosystem is compromised, it can open the door for attackers to access everything else!
We’ve seen this firsthand. One of our clients clicked a malicious link on their phone. Thankfully, their paid antivirus software caught it instantly, blocking the payload before it could log keystrokes or steal credentials. That quick save prevented what could have been a devastating data breach.
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
7. Ensure Firewall and Malware Scanning
A secure website isn’t just about strong passwords. It also needs strong walls around it. Firewalls and malware scanners act as your digital cybersecurity guards, monitoring traffic, blocking suspicious activity, and flagging vulnerabilities before they become catastrophic.
The tricky part?
Many big-name hosting providers don’t include robust firewalls or malware scanning by default. That means trainers and coaches often think they’re protected, when in reality their site is sitting open to brute force login attempts, bots, and malicious code injections.
We’ve seen how much of a difference it makes to set these protections up properly. One of our clients was experiencing hundreds of unauthorized login attempts each week. After implementing a professional firewall and malware scanner, every attempt was blocked before reaching their site, which meant their members’ sensitive data remained completely secure!
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
Let us manage your firewalls, backups, and more
Our security plans start at $120/mo.
8. Train Your Team to Spot and Stop Threats
We once worked with a company where an employee innocently clicked on an email that looked like it came from their boss. It wasn’t.
Within minutes, the attacker had access to sensitive files. Fortunately, the damage was limited, but it was a wake-up call for the entire team.
That’s when we rolled out regular cybersecurity training with their team to teach staff how to spot scams, create strong passwords, and report suspicious activity. Since implementing their new security breach response plan, incidents like that have dropped to nearly zero.
So, since your employees are your first line of defense, we recommend scheduling short, recurring training sessions with your team on cybersecurity basics. You can even use this article to guide your team!
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
As we remind our clients: training isn’t a one-time event. It’s a habit. And the more your team practices staying vigilant, the less likely they are to fall for costly scams.
9. Have a Security Breach Response Plan in Place
Even the most prepared businesses can experience a cyber incident. The real difference between chaos and control comes down to one thing: having a plan. Without one, valuable time is wasted figuring out what to do in the heat of the moment. With one, you can act quickly and confidently, containing damage before it spirals.
One of our clients once faced a phishing attack that spread through their email system. Because they had a clear response plan (they knew who to call, what steps to take, and how to communicate with their team) they contained the threat in hours instead of days.
Contrast that with businesses who scramble without a plan: the team and workload experiences downtime stretches, stress levels skyrocket, and reputations take a hit (offline and on).
What we do for ourselves & our clients (and what you can do, too!):
BONUS TIP: Automate your small business website’s cybersecurity
Strong passwords, email protection, malware scanning, backups, firewalls, team training…we’re the first to admit the list is long. And as you’ve just learned, missing even one step can open the door to costly breaches.
Still, we’ve armed you with as much information as possible about what you and your team can do behind the scenes to protect yourself.
Now it’s your choice: you can do it yourself, or you can fully automate your website’s security.
Do you really want to put all that on your plate?
If your answer is no, then you already know why so many of our clients choose to let us handle their website’s security for them.
That’s because we offer a ton of these cybersecurity protections with either our Gold Plan for the basics, or our Diamond Plan for the full list above!
The deal is, as soon as you sign up you’ll transition into a more secure website system, without the stress of doing it yourself.
Your site will be automatically fortified, your data will be protected, and your business (and you!) will be free to grow without constant worry about the next cyber threat.
And if you happen to find yourself wondering (as so many founders and solopreneurs do) “Is it really worth it?”, you can always come back to this:
How much would it cost your business if your site went down for just one day? What about the trust lost if your members’ data was exposed?
Compared to those risks, a small monthly investment feels like the cheapest insurance policy you’ll ever buy.
Not to mention that automating your cybersecurity (and a lot more with our upper-level plans) will finally let you focus on what you love to do!
Your next steps to automate website cybersecurity and more:
Ready to start automating your website security?
Sign up for our Gold Plan now
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