Small and Medium Businesses are face a growing cybersecurity problem that isn’t going away on its own!
We live in a difficult time for business owners. With the added complexity of IT systems and the increase in criminal activity, it can be difficult to know how to secure your business or even where to start. Large enterprises are way ahead and have been taking proactive measures to upgrade their cyber defense for many years (likely because they were the primary target from the onset of cyber-crime). Due the rapid increase in malicious activity, SMBs are lagging way behind on their cybersecurity capabilities and quickly becoming the popular target for bad actors.
People that know me, know that I love stats, facts and figures. While some may say that stats can be made up or biased, they still tell a story and start the right conversations. With that in mind, I’d like to share some stats that I hope will get you thinking about how you are protecting your business today and asking the right questions about whether or not you are doing enough to protect your company data from breaches or damage.
Did you know:
- 43% of all data breach victims are small businesses (Verizon – 2019 Data Breach Report)
- 424% increase in authentic and new breaches of small businesses in 2018 (4iQ Identity Breach Report – 2018)
- 25% of SMBs filed for bankruptcy and 10 percent went out of business following a data breach (National Cyber Security Alliance)
- Smaller organizations (1–250 employees) have the highest targeted malicious email rate at 1 in 323 (Symantec)
- 92% of malware is delivered by email (Verizon – 2019 Data Breach Report)
- 54% of SMBs believe their companies are “Too Small” to be targets (Ponemon Institute)
You can, and should, fact check this information but the one that really seems out of place is the last one. If the above information is correct, then shouldn’t this indicate that small and medium sized businesses are being targeted? This is probably the number one response I get when speaking with SMB owners that haven’t engaged in building a cybersecurity program – “we are too small to worry about it” or “we don’t have anything they (the bad actors) would want”. The other common response is “my MSP (or IT staff) take care of my computers and have my security covered”… but do they? This is exactly what the criminals want you to believe and why the target has shifted from large enterprises to SMBs.
Hopefully by the time you get to this part of the blog, you’ve already checked a few of my facts and did a little more fact finding of your own. SMBs are the target for cyber-crime and you need to take steps to avoid contributing to the 43% that fall victim. Clearly the methods being used to protect SMBs today are not adequate to protect against the complexities of the current IT environment and the sophistication of the attacks being launched by the cyber criminals. We are losing the battle resulting in a growing number of business owners losing their dream and innocent victims having their private information stolen and sold on the dark web for malicious and fraudulent purposes.
What can you do about it?
Consult a cybersecurity expert.
This shouldn’t be viewed as a trust issue with your current IT staff or MSP. They are doing a great job of what they were employed to do. Cybersecurity has evolved so rapidly that traditional IT methods are no longer effective in keeping the bad guys at bay. Traditional IT is still great at keeping day to day operations up and running but it falls well short of effectively detecting and safeguarding against modern attacks. A cybersecurity consultant can work with you and your team to identify where you are doing a good job and where you may have gaps and how to address them.
For many SMBs, the elephant in the room is the perceived costs of cybersecurity. The truth of the matter is that it is far less expensive to prevent a breach than it is to recover from one. In many cases, there is an opportunity to streamline processes and technology to the point that you can achieve savings. Simplicity is the partner of cybersecurity so reducing risks while reducing costs is a realistic goal of a good cybersecurity program.
Contact Dream Technology Solutions today for a free consultation and find out more about the current trends in cyber and what you can do about it.
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