In today’s increasingly malicious computing environment, hackers don’t discriminate. They don’t limit their focus only to “big ticket” Fortune 500 companies. In fact, this misconception is among one of the biggest reasons many small- and mid-sized business are often targeted — and breached — by opportunistic cyberattacks. Today’s hackers view SMBs as low-hanging fruit, since smaller businesses often either don’t see cybersecurity as a real threat, or they don’t feel that their data is a worthy target for a hungry attacker — both of which are completely unfounded beliefs.
In a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, researchers found that more than 50 percent of SMBs have been breached within the past 12 months, and about 75 percent of those businesses reported that attackers had infiltrated the companies’ anti-virus and anti-malware protections. Only about 14 percent of the SMBs surveyed felt they had an effective approach and response to cybersecurity threats.
As hackers continue to evolve beyond our best defenses, businesses need to look at the potential vulnerabilities in elements that are often beyond their control. Employees can present a weak point in any company’s security framework, since they are susceptible to human error and an assortment of convincing phishing and social engineering attacks built to operate on human sensibility and familiarity. Throw in the now-mainstream practices of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and BYON (Bring Your Own Network), and any business with employees has a whole host of potential weak links in their business’s security architecture.
So what can a small- or mid-sized business do to defend against these rapidly advancing cyberattacks?
If you have an effective, updated backup in place, you stand a much better chance of surviving a ransomware attack without going broke paying criminals for your data.
403Tech Inc is your IT security expert specializing in protecting your business against ever-evolving threats such as ransomware, phishing attacks and other cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Contact us at (403) 215-7506 or send us an email at [email protected] for more information.
403Tech is one of the Top 50 Managed IT services companies in Canada.