How Inferior Cyber Security Affects Small Businesses

Why Even Small Businesses Must Worry About Cyber Attacks

Everyone remembers the effect that security breaches have had on large corporations like Target and Home Depot. However, most small business owners don’t consider the potential impact that a security breach could have on them. Reports of small legal offices and online retailers being hacked has led many small businesses to the brink of bankruptcy. Most small business owners assume that they aren’t in danger of falling victim to cyber crimes because they assume that hackers wouldn’t want, or have use for, their data.

However, Most small business owners don’t recognize that they’re actually the perfect target in the eyes of many hackers. Personal information like social security numbers, credit card numbers, Tax Identification Numbers and other personal information can be uncovered by hackers and used to collect ransom from the affected small business. Ransomware is just one of the many forms of cyber crimes that affect small businesses and, in fact, Keeper Security estimates that 50% of small businesses were impacted by a security breach in 2016. Even further, The Huffington Post reports that 60% of small business owners impacted by cyber security attacks will fail within six months of the attack.

How to Prevent Cybersecurity Attacks on your Small Business

The ideal solution to this is to fortify your network as much as possible. Keeping your Antivirus software, firewalls and security features updated is the best way to protect your small business from cyber security attacks. Hackers are constantly evolving and coming up with innovative techniques for stealing your information and the only way you can hope to combat them is by keeping your security mechanisms up-to-date.

However, we all know that despite your significant investment in a state-of-the-art security system with the most updated security features; inevitably, an employee will open an email attachment which contains a virus that will infect your entire LAN. The only way to prevent these happenings is through regular cyber security training for your employees. Most small businesses don’t consider this a necessity, however it is, perhaps, the most proactive investment a small business owner can make toward protecting his/her SMB.

What to do if it Happens to YOU

So you’ve invested in premium cybersecurity for your small business, you’ve invested in cybersecurity training for your employees, you’ve done everything right and still, your business falls prey to a cyber security data breach. It happens. You wouldn’t be the first. What’s important is that you have a disaster-recovery plan in place so that you can respond as quickly and efficiently as possible. You must be prepared to shut down the infected device and potentially infected devices within the networks. You need to get in touch with your technical support quickly so that you can run a malware scan and quickly dispose of potential threats to your network. Being prepared to respond to a cyber attack can save your business money and limit the damage done by any hacker.

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