Is Your Small Business Under Cyber Attack? How to Protect Your SMEs?

Small businesses are falling victim to cyberattacks at an alarming rate, and they must learn to better identify and respond to the threats, despite real and perceived limitations in time, money, and resources. Today, both the short-term financial health and the long-term sustainability of a business are dependent on a strong cybersecurity posture, as phishing, malware, ransomware, cloud, and other threats are extremely difficult for small businesses to overcome.

Small businesses are now seen as easy pickings by cyber criminals due to a low level of awareness and limited security resources. And, thanks to automation, attackers can now disperse a single attack that targets thousands to tens of thousands of small businesses at once with the click of a button. It's that simple, and it only takes one employee to make a mistake to set an attack in motion.

According to a Ponemon study, nearly 70% of small businesses were victims of a cyberattack in 2017, but nearly half of the respondents said they had no idea how to protect their businesses from cyberattacks. This level of risk is directly related to a small business's adoption and use of vulnerable cloud apps (e.g., Dropbox, Office 365, G-Suite, and so on), as well as its use of contractors and remote workers for business continuity, among other things.

What are the primary cyber threats to small businesses?

Many small businesses today rely solely on the built-in security of cloud apps if they rely on security at all. However, such security offers little to protect credentials from being stolen or against an employee from compromising assets either maliciously or out of human error. According to the Ponemon study, 40 percent of respondents who reported an attack said it involved a compromised password.

These are some of the most serious threats to small businesses. These are some examples:

Malware is a broad category of malicious software that infiltrates, damages, or disables computers or systems, frequently in order to steal, encrypt, or hijack computer functions.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents access to a computer and enslaves its files until a ransom is paid.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents access to a computer and enslaves its files until a ransom is paid.

Phishing: A common strategy in which hackers solicit information and gain access to accounts by using phone messages, email accounts, and links.

Wi-Fi phishing is a strategy in which hackers trick employees into downloading malicious code into a captive portal by disguising it as a software update.

Commjacking: This is when hackers intercept, steal, or manipulate data and communications by hijacking the communication channel between any device and the Wi-Fi or cellular network.

Spotting the warning signs of a cyberattack

Spotting the warning signs of a cyberattack involves being vigilant for any suspicious activity or anomalies within an organization's network or system. Some common warning signs of a cyberattack include unexpected pop-ups, slow network performance, unauthorized access attempts, unfamiliar accounts or devices, and unusual system behaviors. It is important to educate employees on how to identify these warning signs and to have incident response plans in place to quickly address any potential cyberattacks.

Some of the data breach protection platforms like Kepler Safe monitor cloud applications for data leaks, cyber threats, and regulatory violations that put your company at risk. We built our platform from the ground up to provide all necessary security in a single, self-contained, cloud-based system, eliminating the need for extensive implementation and integration, as well as manual monitoring and intervention. Done with security!