No business is completely safe from security vulnerabilities. Just look at some major companies. While these well-known companies may seem like a more attractive target for hackers, the businesses flying under the radar face the same, if not more, threats from cyber attackers looking to cause mayhem in a company. To help small- and midsize-businesses stay protected, here are 4 security issues mostly all small business face.
1. Disgruntled Employees:
Employees are the greatest security risk for any organization, because they know where the company’s valuable data is stored and how to access it. The most common cause of a data breach is from an ex-employee or an unhappy employee who didn’t get a promotion or a raise. If a trusted employee turns against you, the result can be disastrous if you aren’t prepared.
The best ways to stop an internal attack are to:
a) Make sure to change the passwords, credentials, and authentications when an employee leaves or is fired, just like you take his or her access key card
b) Monitor and manage access credentials very closely and be sure to log privileged account activity and watch for unusual behavior.
2. Hackers Are Always on the Hunt:
Threat actors are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities. This means that a small business’s website, network, server, etc. can be hacked at any given time if left exposed. According to research conducted by Trend Micro, every second, 3.5 new cybercrimes take place. This poses an amplified threat to small businesses. Because big and established organizations have improved security systems, small businesses with zero to poor protection are quite vulnerable.
Small businesses need to be conscientious of cyber security because they are the target now. It used to be that major companies were lax in their security measure and presented big paydays for cyber criminals. Now, those companies have spent billions of dollars to avoid data loss and the negative publicity that comes with it. Cyber criminals have changed their focus to those that are easier targets, mainly small business. Top access control systems help in avoiding this issue.
3. Cyber attackers don't discriminate:
Small and midsize businesses often make a philosophical mistake right off the bat: They assume they are too small to be relevant to hackers. So while larger companies often opt for corporate-owned devices, there are many products available on a per-seat basis that will work to secure proprietary data even when accessed by personally-owned devices.
This is where SMBs need to focus: on the protection of their data. Even if your strategy is not as comprehensive (or expensive) as those in place at a federal agency or a massive corporation, building roadblocks on the way to exposed plaintext information is a necessary tactic to discourage hackers. Otherwise you’re an easy mark.
4. Cloud Services:
Because of its affordability and unmatched utility, small businesses and startups are jumping on to Cloud services. However, hackers are oblivious to nothing, and cyberattacks on Cloud services have increased considerably. A report by Intel Security titled “McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report” highlights that in 2017, cloud threats would increase significantly, thereby increasing the risk for start-ups and small businesses.
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