Small Businesses and Cyber Security – A Major Problem

General
UI/Icons/Doc/Dark/arrow-left Copy
Back to News

Initially, you might think of cybersecurity as something that only large, multi-million- and multi-billion-dollar businesses need to take seriously. That most definitely is not the case as the following facts and statistics indicate.

  • Nationwide, approximately 43 percent of cyber attacks are targeted toward small businesses.
  • Cyber attacks against small businesses are extremely costly, and 60 percent of the small businesses victimized by a security breach are forced to close their doors within six months of the attack.

One of the major reasons for the high number of attacks against small businesses is their lack of preparedness. A recent study found that 47 percent of companies with 50 or fewer employees lack a cyber security budget, while 18 percent of those having 250 or more employees also did not have a budget dedicated to cyber security.

 

 

 

Why small businesses are vulnerable

 

Aside from the lack of budgeting for cybersecurity, there are a number of other reasons why small businesses are susceptible to cyber attacks.

  • They often don’t take the threat seriously enough, believing they’re too small to be of interest to hackers.
  • If they do have protective systems, they tend to be outdated and outmoded.
  • The software needed to modernize these older systems is no longer produced.

Finally, the COVID-19 crisis has complicated things even more. To remain in operation, many businesses large and small resorted to remote work. Unfortunately, working remotely often increases the time it takes to identify and respond to a cyber attack, compared to businesses where more workers were actually on site.

 

 

 

Some types of cyber attacks

 

A few of the more common types of cyber attacks include the following.

  • Social engineering scams – These cybercrimes trick or manipulate someone into divulging personal or confidential information for fraudulent purposes. Phishing is one of the more common of these in which you receive an email from a supposedly reputable firm or government agency asking for things like passwords and credit card numbers.
  • Malware – This attack installs malware software on your computer after clicking on a harmful link or opening an email attachment. Malware can lock down a computer, block access to network components, and steal valuable information.
  • SQL Injections – With this attack a hacker “injects” malicious software into systems using SQL, getting it to display things like customer lists and other confidential company data.
  • Denial of service attack – This involves hackers overloading a system, making it inaccessible to authorized users and unresponsive to service requests.
  • Botnets – This attack uses bots to spread spam, steal personal information, and inject viruses into a computer network.

 

 

 

 

How to protect your small business against cyber attacks

 

Certainly one extremely important step that can be taken to guard against cyber attacks is improved employee training, training that cannot simply be a one-and-done kind of thing. It’s essential to constantly train employees on things like recognizing and avoiding scams, creating strong passwords to prevent password attacks, and protecting sensitive company data.

 

Protect Your Small Business Against Cyber Attacks - SMG Security

 

By far, however, the most important step you can take to protect your business is the implementation of a cyber security system from SMG Security. Through decades of experience we have developed cost-effective cyber security systems for small and mid-market businesses, and we would like to have the opportunity to work with your business.

 

Stated simply, we believe that our job is to protect your business network and world, and our analysts and engineers are standing by to work as partners in your success. Please don’t delay. For the very best in business cyber security, contact SMG Security today.

Keep Up-to-Date on Zeus Innovations
All News