Your business may not need world-class security to keep hackers away -- but make sure you cover these basics to stay safe If your small-to-midsized business is like most, you’re playing a game of chicken with cyber-criminals. You probably know that your defenses probably aren’t able to repel today’s sophisticated, persistent attacks, yet you hope that you’ll be overlooked. IT security is complex, and security professionals are mired in a nonstop arms race against cyber-criminals. It’s easy to read headlines and think, “If the DoD can be penetrated, how am I going to ward off would be attackers?” True enough, but there’s an old security maxim to keep in mind: You don’t have to have the most secure house on the block; you just have to have better security than your neighbors. [ALSO: Hot security startups] If you follow these five security best practices, if nothing else, you should be more secure than the majority of your SMB neighbors: 1. Be sure you’ve covered the security basics You know that you should have antivirus and firewall protection on every computer in your company, and you know that you should train employees about safe email and web practices. However, have you verified that proper security tools are up to date? Have you verified that your employees understand the risks that come from clicking weird attachments? Security