Small businesses can often feel out of the loop because they play second fiddle to larger corporations a lot of the time. For example, the issues that are currently ongoing with social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, don’t really affect the small companies that are trying to grow in this industry. So there’s good and bad as you don’t get caught in the storm that you didn’t create, but some of the more important industry decisions don’t involve your input. However, one thing that is for certain is that cybersecurity affects everyone. No matter if you’re a large behemoth and have millions of customers worldwide, or if you’re just a small business with a city-wide consumer base, cyber attacks are like a domino effect. This is why some are even saying that the impact of such attacks on small businesses especially could lead to huge consequences.
Information is a currency
What do hackers really want from your business? No it’s not the fresh order of cream doughnuts in the lounge area of your office, it’s information of course! Information is a currency in business, it hold a value inherently. With information you know many different things, such as customer data, profit and revenue performances, network connections and storage structure to name a few. Just in the first quarter of 2019 alone, there has been a 200% rise in trojan attacks and malware that preys on your business information. Customer data is the ultimate prize for these kinds of attacks as direct marketing opportunities can be sold to the highest bidder. Having full time managed security is pretty much the only way to stay on top of things. Here are some more details which you can read through and see how real-time protection protects against spyware and trojans.
An amazing shift
With 2019 comes brand new challenges. It turns out that hackers and cyber criminal gangs are not purely focussing on customer data. In fact, we can now see that there has been an amazing shift toward businesses specifically. Ransomware is something that steals company methods, product research, strategies and tactics of all kinds. As the name of the threat suggests, it will offer back the stolen intellectual property and crucial data for something in return. However you can bet your bottom dollar that whether it’s Emotet or TrickBot, the ones who control the trojan will have already sold the data before ‘giving it back’. This is why you should focus now more than ever on internal leaks, security threats and train employees to be mindful of what they access and what they open online.
Impact of the setback
You can recover from many cyber attacks but the thing is, the setback that you go through could be fatal. It’s kind of like surviving the disease and then being killed by the hospital pneumonia. That’s why the impact of the setback is also something you should plan for with contingency and recovery plans that you can activate at a moment’s notice.
Cyber attacks in the form of trojans and viruses are incredibly debilitating for any business. However, small businesses need to plan just as carefully for the protection of the internal as well as external threats.
