Why Small Businesses are at Higher Risk of Cyber Attacks

Why are smaller businesses targeted more?

There are many reasons why hackers see small businesses as easy targets. Let’s take a look at why you could be at risk and how to make sure your small business stays secure.

1. Small Businesses tend to spend less on Cyber Security

As a smaller business, you might try to keep your costs low and prioritise what you spend money on. It may not be at the top of your list, but Cyber security is super important.

One big mistake small businesses make is not spending enough on their IT security. You might think having anti-virus software on your devices is good enough – but we all know that’s not the case.  With the advancement in technology and ways cyber criminals can attack, you’ll need many more layers of security to stay safe.

Although smaller businesses aren’t as valuable as larger businesses, hackers know they’ll have much less work to do to get a payout.

2. Every Business has “Hack-Worthy” resources

Every business, even the smallest of them has data worth scoring for hackers, whether it’s credit card details or just someone’s email address.  No matter the information, cyber criminals sell these on the Dark Web. From there, other criminals can use it for identity theft.

Here’s some of the types of data hackers will hunt for:

– Customer Records

– Employee Records

– Bank account/Payment Card information

– Email Addresses and Passwords

3. Small Businesses can provide entry into larger ones

If a hacker breaches into the network of smaller businesses, they can find more information than you expect. Many smaller companies may provide services to larger companies, such as website management, accounting and more.

Working with these larger companies means that the database is filled with information, (the exact kind hackers will be looking for). This type of relationship can cause a multi-company breach, the hackers getting two businesses for the price of one.

This is another reason why the above points are so vital and that you make sure you don’t neglect your IT security.

4. Small Business Owners are often unprepared for Ransomware

Ransomware has been one of the fastest growing cyber attacks of the last decade. So far in 2022 (August), over 71% of surveyed organisations experienced ransomware attacks.

The percentage of victims that pay the ransom to attackers has also been increasing. An average of 63% of companies payout with a sum of money, in hopes of getting a key to decrypt the ransomware.

Again, even though the hacker can’t get as much from smaller businesses, it’s still worth it for them. The breach of a smaller company takes a lot less effort than one of a larger organisation.

5. The Employees Don’t receive Cyber Security Training

Regarding technology, you may have some Cyber security measures in place, however, you can’t forget about user error.

Human error is one of the biggest dangers to a business, if your employees aren’t trained properly, it can lead to them leaving your business vulnerable. 

Training employees on how to spot phishing emails or maybe how to make the best passwords possible is a great starting point for your business. Want to learn more about Cyber Security training for your business? Reformed IT offer the best training for all of our clients, as part of their IT support agreement.