Posted On 18 Feb 2020
It is easy to imagine that cybercriminals would only go after large companies; after all, they are the ones with the most money and the most to lose. Certainly, coverage of cybercrime in the media might make one think this is the case, and research has shown that almost 70% of small/medium size business (SMB) owners don’t worry about the threat from hacking. In fact, 70% of cyberattacks target SMBs, either because they have low levels of security that make an attack easy, all because they are a good way of breaking through to larger parent companies/clients.
SMBs are frequently complacent or frugal about their online security, believing that they will not be a victim. Every SMB should remember that with increasing automation available to cybercriminals anyone can come under attack as “scattergun” attacks are launched; after all, criminals don’t care if they get $1 million from one company or $10,000 from 100 companies, the results are the same.
SMBs frequently don’t have the resources to have their own in-house IT security, and so it can seem an impossible task to build up security, but this is not always the case. Security should be seen as a developing process, not something that has to be done all at once. There are numerous security solutions available that can be installed on your systems; the important thing to note is that it’s not good enough just to install them and expect them to protect you, you need to continually review the system, install updates, plan for any breaches, etc. You also need to think about basic security such as ensuring that your staff frequently change their passwords, use two-factor authentication, etc.
The crucial thing to know about security is to make sure that you start installing or improving it right now. The criminals are only going to get more sophisticated and harder to defeat the longer you leave it; don’t make your company one of those that only takes security seriously once it has actually been breached and shuts the stable door after the horse has bolted.
