What Should Startups Do About Security?

Startups should build a security foundation early by prioritizing risk assessment, strong technical controls, clear policies, and embedding security into the company culture. Doing this helps avoid major losses and trust issues as you grow.

Why security is something you can’t put off

• Attacks and breaches are real risks—even if you’re small.
• Customers, partners, and investors often expect you to have basic security in place before working with you.
• Fixing security problems later often costs much more (time, money, reputation) than building things right now.

When this becomes critical

Stage / Trigger	Why It Matters
Early user growth/product in market	More users/data = bigger attack surface
Handling sensitive/regulated data	Legal obligations and higher stakes
Integrating external tools or vendors	Introduces third‑party risk
Preparing for audits/enterprise sales	Buyers do detailed security reviews

Core things startups should do about security

Here’s a breakdown of essential practices that good security‑minded startups follow:

Practice Area	What to Do / Why It Helps
Risk Assessment & Asset Inventory	List what you need to protect (data, servers, user info) and what threats you face.
Strong Authentication & Access Control	Use MFA, enforce least privilege, limit access.
Encryption & Secure Data Storage / Transmission	Encrypt data at rest & in transit; secure backups.
Regular Software Updates / Patch Management	Keep systems, dependencies, and configurations updated.
Employee Training and Awareness	Teach staff about threats (phishing, safe data practices) and recognize risks.
Policies, Documentation & Compliance Readiness	Have documented policies (incident response, privacy, access); align with relevant regulations.
Monitoring, Logging & Incident Response	Detect issues early, have plans for how to respond when things go wrong.

What you can do now

• Perform a quick risk audit: list your data, apps, vendors, and dependencies.
• Enable MFA and set up strong password requirements across systems.
• Start encrypting data in transit and at rest.
• Make sure your software and servers always have the latest security patches.
• Write simple but effective policies (data handling, incident response).
• Train your team on recognizing phishing and safe handling of sensitive information.
• Set up basic monitoring/alerting for unusual access or behavior.

Simplify startup security with Sprinto

Sprinto offers tools to help automate risk assessments, manage policies and evidence, monitor control gaps, and maintain compliance documentation so you don’t have to build everything from scratch.