Establish foundational security practices. Enable MFA, verify backups, scan for vulnerabilities, and create an incident response plan. Protect your business from avoidable disasters.
Timeline: Weeks 7-8 | Focus: Security Foundations & Risk Mitigation
| Component | Risk if fails | Access Control | Backup Status | Monitoring | Done? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS / Cloud | Service downtime | MFA enabled | Daily backup tested | Alerts active | ☐ |
| Payment Gateway | Revenue loss / fraud | Limited admin | N/A | Transaction logs | ☐ |
| Database | ☐ | ||||
| Authentication System | ☐ | ||||
| API Keys / Secrets | ☐ | ||||
| Customer Data Storage | ☐ | ||||
| Admin Panel | ☐ | ||||
| CI/CD Pipeline | ☐ |
Enable MFA on every account that has access to production systems or sensitive data. This includes your cloud provider console (AWS/Azure/GCP), GitHub or version control, third-party services, admin dashboards - basically anywhere a login could alter your product or data. It might take a few minutes per account to set up (using an app like Google Authenticator or SMS codes), but it dramatically lowers the risk of an account takeover. Make sure your team is on board and understands how crucial this is.
Action Items:
Don’t just assume backups are happening - double-check. Identify all critical data (database contents, user-uploaded files, configuration data) and confirm they are being backed up on a schedule. Next, perform a test restore of a recent backup. This could mean importing a database dump into a test database, or retrieving files from backup storage and loading them somewhere. Many startups learn too late that their backups were incomplete or corrupted. Prove now that you can recover your data quickly if the worst happens.
Action Items: