Do you own a small business? You might think that your small business doesn’t need the same grade of cyber threat protection that a large corporate does, but you’d be wrong. As the largest multinational companies have gotten wise to the threat of cyber crime, and have implemented more stringent security measures to protect themselves, small and medium-sized businesses have started to look more and more attractive to hackers and scammers seeking a quick payoff.
That’s because many smaller businesses simply don’t have the cybersecurity infrastructure that the largest corporations do, and hackers know it. While your small business may not have access to millions or billions of dollars’ worth of customers’ and vendors’ sensitive data, criminals don’t need to rake in millions in order to make a crime worthwhile.
For many, a few thousand or even a few hundred dollars’ worth of ill-gained profit is enough to make a cyberattack profitable.
A Single Cyberattack Could Put You Out of Business
Small and medium-sized businesses now make up 60 percent of cyber attack targets. And, of those who are targeted, 60 percent go out of business within the six months following the attack, due to the astronomical cost of cleaning up after a data breach or other attack.
It can cost an average of $200,000 to clean up after a data breach. And, if your business collects personally identifiable information (PII) in Europe, then you may also have to pay fines under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) totalling up to €20 million or four percent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher, if you do not report the breach within 72 hours of detecting it.
Your Company Is a Target
Just one of these costs could be enough to shutter your business. Eighty-five percent of small business owners have said that they believe large corporations are more likely to suffer a cyberattack, but the truth is that small businesses have sensitive banking and personal information that makes them targets for cyber crime.
All small businesses have access to employees’ Social Security numbers, for example, and many also have access to employees’ banking information and other valuable data, like birthdays and addresses.
Your business also has banking info of its own to look out for, as well as safeguarding the banking and personal information of clients and vendors. Criminals want that information, and the lack of attention many small businesses pay to cyber security makes them seem like easy pickings. Forty-three percent of cyberattacks now target small businesses, but only 14 percent of small businesses are equipped to defend themselves from these attacks.
Enterprise-Level Security Is the Answer
When you invest in enterprise network security solutions for your business, you’ll receive comprehensive security for your website, network data, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and employees working remotely or with their own devices. As of March 2018, small businesses need to comply with new SSL/TLS certificate protocols designed to keep internet users safe as they use web portals to submit sensitive information, like credit card numbers and email addresses.
Failure to comply with these new protocols could cost you website traffic, damage your reputation, and harm online sales, as well as leaving your business vulnerable to cyber attacks. Enterprise-grade network security like PacGenesis can help you manage these security protocols.
You’ll also get help with employee cybersecurity training, which is an often-overlooked, but vital, part of securing your network and data against cyber attacks. Many cyber criminals use phishing attacks and social engineering strategies to get their hands on login credentials and other sensitive data that they can use to effect a breach.
Human error remains the biggest threat to your small business’s data security, so regular and repeated cyber security training can’t be skipped.
And, of course, with so many devices in the workplace connected to the internet these days, it’s vital that you have real-time threat detection for your business network. Each laptop, smart phone, wifi-connected robot vacuum, and wireless security camera you have represents another access point through which hackers can get into your network, and manual remediation is simply too slow and error-prone to be effective.
You need the automated, real-time threat detection that enterprise-grade security provides. Models like zero trust remove vulnerable permissions and prevent unnecessary access to sensitive administrative functions, in real-time.
Your business can’t afford to skimp when it comes to cybersecurity — not when the threat is so pervasive. A single cyber attack could spell doom for your business, so protect your hard work and livelihood with the right cybersecurity suite. When criminals target your company’s sensitive data, you’ll be grateful for the protection enterprise-grade security provides.
