When people think of cyber attacks, big corporations and government agencies often come to mind. Those are the ones that make the news and shake markets, but for every massive cybersecurity hack and breach, there are thousands upon thousands of small businesses getting exploited and pillaged. While the gut instinct is that cybercriminals would go for the BIG scores, the reality is the biggest scores frequently come from small businesses, and with way less effort.
Smaller Defenses, Bigger Risks
Most small businesses don’t have the same level of security as large companies. Big organizations usually invest heavily in cybersecurity. They will have firewalls and intrusion detection and a security team monitoring everything in addition to a whole alphabet soup of acronyms for their protection. Small businesses, on the other hand, often don’t have the budget or resources for such defenses. This makes it easier for hackers to break in.
If you’re a small business owner, you may not even know where to start protecting your business let alone what layers of defense you might need. That’s exactly why we’ve put together a free, no-jargon checklist to help you get started. It breaks down what to protect, how to protect it, and what to do if things go sideways.
It’s simple: A burglar is almost always going to prefer to take the jewelry out of a house with an unlocked door instead of trying to break into a bank vault with lasers and armed guards patrolling, even if the vault may be worth millions. The same is true for cybercrime.
It gets even worse for most small businesses when they realize they don’t have a response plan or resilient backups, which means they’re far more likely to pay ever-increasing ransoms for their data—or go out of business.
Less Cybersecurity Training
Employees at small businesses may not get regular training on cybersecurity. So, not only do small businesses have fewer layers of protection and barriers to stop the bad guys, but employees are also far more likely to click or put in credentials, making it even easier for criminals to get in and do damage.
While ransomware attacks get all the news coverage, Business Email Compromise (BEC) is far, far more common and significantly more lucrative for criminals. BEC also has the benefit of being self-propagating: They get into one email account and use the trust people might have with that person to send out more phishing links, all while running a scam to get money from the business they’ve already breached.
These attacks almost always require a user to make a mistake and get phished, and without proper training, most people don’t know what to look for. Big businesses may have onboarding and mandatory annual training. Small businesses often don’t have the tools or don’t make the time to train their people, making them easy marks for this lucrative “business.”
Valuable Data, Easy Access
Don’t be fooled by the word “small.” Even tiny companies collect valuable data: customer addresses, payment info, business plans, and more. Many times this data isn’t even encrypted or protected in any meaningful way, leaving even less work for the criminals to turn it into data that can be sold or used for fraud. It’s an easy payday for hackers.
Whether they fleece your business for a ransom to not release the data on the dark web (and they probably will anyway) or you have to send out a breach notification to your clients, this data theft can have massive consequences both financially and reputationally for a small business. Small businesses often thrive on those personal relationships and trust, and a data breach will torpedo that in an instant.
Low Chances of Getting Caught
Hackers know that small businesses are less likely to have the tools or the time to investigate a cyber attack. If a breach happens, it might go undetected for weeks or months. That’s plenty of time for a criminal to harvest everything they need and weaponize it.
Without something like Huntress Identity Threat Protection, these breaches can go on undetected until a customer gets scammed and reports it, and the attackers might even be able to intercept those notices too!
Even if they do get caught, many SMBs will try to sweep it under the rug rather than report it, meaning the attackers can keep chaining along the businesses that company works with unimpeded.
How Small Businesses Can Protect Themselves
- Invest in basic security tools like firewalls and antivirus software.
- Train employees to spot common scams and phishing emails.
- Keep software and systems up to date. Did you know Windows 10 is ending support in two weeks?
- Back up important data regularly—and test it.
- Use strong, unique passwords and change them often.
This sounds like a lot, and if you’re already running your business, it may seem like there’s no time for all of this, especially at a level to compete with the type of security big businesses boast. The good news? You have help.
The local IT experts on our BP/IT team have decades of experience bringing enterprise level security to small and medium-sized businesses and at costs that make sense and without burying you in a bunch of acronyms and vendor names.
Let’s Get Connected
Not sure where to start? Start with our free Cybersecurity Checklist or book a free tech consultation today, no pressure. When local businesses are safe and thrive, we’re all better for it!
We’ll take a fresh look at your current setup, walk through what’s working (and what isn’t), and answer your questions without any pressure or jargon.
No hard pitch. No obligation. Just clear advice from your local team that cares.
