DAYTON, Ohio — When Charlynda Scales' grandfather passed away, she was the one in the family to inherit his beloved sauce recipe.
"He was a Korean Vietnam War veteran, and his callsign was ‘mutt’ for his adaptive personality and he made this sauce back in 1956,” Scales said. “My family ate it for generations."
She now shares his sauce with the world through her Dayton-based company.
Scales is not only a business owner, but she's also a veteran. And she's concerned about what's happening in Ukraine and threats of Russian cyberattacks.
"You really have to step up the level of security in your own ways, in ways that you can afford,” she said.
Nick Ripplinger is also a Dayton-based business owner and veteran.
"This threat is nothing new,” said Ripplinger, the president of Battle Sight Technologies. “I think it's just kind of become significantly more elevated in the last two weeks."
"We're just a couple of router hops away from the bad guys,” said C. Matthew Curtin of Columbus-based Interhack.
Whether you're a small business owner or a consumer, experts say it's important to use multi-factor authentication or two-factor authentication.
"[There are] better methods now with different apps that give you that code that rotates every 30 seconds to log into Google log into Microsoft to anything else that you might use. But those can also be used to secure your network at a small business, too,” said Rick Jordan, Founder and CEO of ReachOut Technology.
Also, reduce your footprint online.
"That means the fewer apps you're using, the better the fewer sites that you're using, the better the fewer accounts that you have, the better. If you have to have some kind of an account, you don't have to use your real name. There isn't any reason why you can't have an alias that you use for one particular provider and a different alias for another provider,” said Curtin.
And they say when you're the customer, you're the boss. You do not have to give your sensitive information.
For example, If a cellphone provider asks for your social security number to sell you a phone, say no.
Some business owners may be eligible for free screenings to check your risk for a cyber-attack through the Department of Homeland Security.
There are also free cyber security training resources on the state level.