What to Do When You Can’t Afford a Cybersecurity Team

Small businesses often can't afford full-time cybersecurity staff. So they turn to consultants or virtual CISOs—who might recommend expensive tools most business owners don’t understand or can’t afford. When you’re a 10-person company, that doesn’t scale.

✅ Start with the Low-Hanging Fruit

Victor Chang (former M&A tech lead at Meta) suggests starting small with practical, affordable steps that still make a big impact. The idea is to do what’s most effective for the least cost—especially when budgets are tight.

🔑 The Password Problem: How We Got Here

• Passwords started simple: pet names, birthdates, etc.

• Then evolved into long, complex, hard-to-remember strings.

• Now we’re stuck: Passwords are both difficult for us and easy for attackers.

• We're reusing them across dozens of accounts, which only makes things worse.

🔐 The Future Is Passwordless

Instead of complex passwords, biometric login (like fingerprints) is becoming more common and much more secure. It’s called passwordless technology and started gaining traction around 2021.

💡 Key reassurance: Your biometrics stay on your device—they’re not stored by companies like Facebook or Google. This keeps your privacy intact while making your login experience faster, easier, and safer.

🎯 Takeaway

You don’t need a six-figure security budget to improve your defenses. Focus on smart, scalable steps—like enabling passwordless login—before worrying about complex, costly tools.