Own a Small Businesses? You are 3x more likely to get hacked!

Small Companies Tend to Spend Less on Cybersecurity

At the start of each month when the budget is assessed, cyber security often gets overlooked and put aside to the following month. You know it is important but it is not at the top of the list.

Small business owners may buy one residential grade antivirus and hope for the best. But with the expansion of technology to the cloud, that’s just one small layer. We recommend several layers of security to decrease your risk.

Hackers know all this and see small businesses as an easier target, less work more pay.

Every Business Has “Hack-Worthy” Resources

Every business, even a 1-person shop, has data that’s worth scoring for a hacker. Credit card numbers, SSNs, tax ID numbers, and email addresses are all valuable. Cybercriminals can sell these on the Dark Web. From there, other criminals use them for identity theft.

Here are some of the data that hackers will go after:

• Customer records
• Employee records
• Bank account information
• Emails and passwords
• Payment card details

Two for one

If a hacker can breach the network of a small business, they can often make a larger score. Many smaller companies provide services to larger companies. This can include digital marketing, website management, accounting, and more.

Vendors are often digitally connected to certain client systems. This type of relationship can enable a multi-company breach. While hackers don’t need that connection to hack you, it is a nice bonus. They can get two companies for the work of one.

Small Business Owners Are Often Unprepared for Ransomware

Ransomware has been one of the fastest-growing cyberattacks of the last decade. So far in 2022, over 71% of surveyed organizations experienced ransomware attacks.

The percentage of victims that pay the ransom to attackers has also been increasing. Now, an average of 63% of companies pay the attacker money in hopes of getting a key to decrypt the ransomware.

When companies pay the ransom, it feeds the beast and more cyber criminals join in. And those newer to ransomware attacks will often go after smaller, easier-to-breach companies.

Employees at Smaller Companies Usually Aren’t Trained in Cybersecurity

Ongoing employee cybersecurity training is often not high on the list either. Priorities are often sales and operations and keeping good staff..

Training employees on how to spot phishing and password best practices often isn’t done. This leaves networks vulnerable to one of the biggest dangers, human error. It is recommended that staff are trained every 4 months on cyber security awareness.

Phishing causes over 80% of data breaches.

A phishing email sitting in an inbox can’t usually do anything. It needs the user to either open a file attachment or click a link that will take them to a malicious site. This then launches the attack.

Teaching employees how to spot these ploys can significantly increase your cybersecurity. Security awareness training is as important as having a strong firewall or antivirus.

Orbitel Technologies can offer support with phishing training. Reach out today to schedule a technology consultation.

Article used with permission from The Technology Press.