If you think your small business is too “small-scale” to be on the radar of hackers, think again. With just a few keystrokes, your company, all your client data, sensitive files, and passwords can be accessed, stolen, and used for malicious reasons. How would your company handle this? If you have no idea, then you need to wake up and realize that no company, regardless of size, is immune to the damages that can be inflicted during a cyber attack.
The news headlines can be misleading, especially since it seems like the big corporations like Equifax and Yahoo are the ones making the headlines for breaches. Don’t let the attention of the breaches of large corporations lull you into complacency. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2017 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium-Sized Businesses report, the percentage of small businesses that have experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months is up from 55 percent in 2016 to 61 percent in 2017. While the numbers are not in complete for 2018, the estimates are the 60 percentiles again.
Small business owners seem to believe that they are not attractive to hackers as they do not store heavy amounts of sensitive information. But this is far from true. More than half of the interviewed owners reported that they do store information like emails, business contacts, phone numbers and other information that could be used in malicious ways.
Sadly, the vast majority of businesses divulged to the Huffington Post that they’re doing little to prepare themselves against online threats. This lack of preparation extends to their dismissal of basic digital security hygiene. For example, just 38% of SMBs (small-to mid-sized businesses) stated that they upgrade their security solutions and only 22% encrypt databases.
These numbers just don’t seem to jive with the reality that shows that sixty percent of SMBs go bankrupt six months after suffering a cyberattack. Are you willing to risk it? If you have not already done so, talk to your IT specialist about steps you can take to secure your systems and design a solid backup plan in case you are breached. Every business should also have a disaster recovery plan for not only natural events but also for malicious attacks online.
Categorised in: hacking, internet issues, IT Consulting Services, laptop, mobile issues, Security