Sorry, we have bad news. A new report by cybersecurity firm Barracuda Networks tells us that small businesses are more vulnerable, not less. The report analyzed millions of emails across multiple thousands of organizations. They found that small companies have plenty to worry about regarding their IT security.
Barracuda Networks discovered something truly alarming. Employees at small companies experienced 350% more social engineering attacks than employees of larger businesses. The researchers defined a small company as one with less than 100 employees, putting small businesses at a higher risk of falling victim to a cyberattack. We explore why below.
Why Are Smaller Companies More Of A Target?
Multiple reasons come to mind as to why hackers see small businesses as easy targets, and why they are becoming higher priorities of hackers out to score a quick illicit buck.
Small Companies Spend Less on Cybersecurity
Running a small business often resembles a juggling act of where to prioritize your cash. You know cybersecurity is important, but what isn’t? So, cash runs out before the end of the month, and cybersecurity gets moved to the “next month” wish list of expenditures. Repeatedly.
Small business owners usually think they can’t spend as much as they should on their IT security. They often buy an antivirus program and think that’s enough. However, with the business data expansion to the cloud, that’s just one small layer. Business systems need several more for adequate security.
Hackers know all this, so they see small businesses as easier targets. They get to do much less work to get a payout than they would trying to hack into an enterprise corporation.
Every Business Has Valuable “Hack-Worthy” Resources
Every business, even a 1-person shop out of their house, keeps data that’s worth scoring for a hacker. Credit card numbers, SSNs, tax ID numbers, and email addresses are all valuable to scammers. Cybercriminals sell these for high price tags on the Dark Web. From there, purchasing criminals use them for identity theft or other scams.
Some of the data that hackers will go after:
- Customer records
- Employee records
- Bank account information
- Emails and passwords
- Payment card details
Small Businesses Often Provide Entry Into Larger Ones
If a hacker breaches a small business’s network, they can often make a larger score through it. Many smaller companies provide vital services to larger companies. These services include digital marketing, website management, accounting, and more.
Vendors often digitally connect to certain client systems. This type of digital relationship can enable a multi-company breach if everyone doesn’t keep their security tight. While hackers don’t need that connection to think it’s worthwhile hack you, it is a nice bonus. They can get two companies for the work of one.
Small Business Owners Are Often Caught By Surprise With Ransomware
Ransomware has consistently ranked one of the fastest-growing cyberattacks of the last decade. So far in 2022, over 71% of organizations who participated in the survey experienced ransomware attacks.
The percentage of company victims that pay the ransom to attackers has also been increasing. These days, an average of 63% of companies held up pay the attacker money in hopes of getting a key to decrypt the ransomware.
Even if a hacker can’t get as much money from a holding up a small business as they can from a larger organization, it’s still worth it. It’s easier to breach more small companies than larger ones.
When companies pay the ransom, it feeds the beast and more cyber criminals join in. People go where the money is. Cybercriminals who are newer to ransomware attacks will often go after smaller, easier-to-breach companies because they need the practice.
Employees at Smaller Companies Usually Aren’t Trained in Cybersecurity
Another thing not usually high on the list of priorities for a small business owner is ongoing employee cybersecurity training. They may be doing all they can just to keep good staff. Priorities are often sales and operations, and who has the time?
Employee training on how to spot phishing and password best practices often is just skipped or done too quickly. This mistake leaves networks vulnerable to one of the biggest dangers, human error.
In the vast majority of cyberattacks, the hacker needs help from a user. It’s comparable to the vampire needing the unsuspecting victim to invite them inside. Scammers use phishing emails to get that unsuspecting cooperation.
Phishing causes over 80% of data breaches.
A phishing email just sitting unopened in an inbox can’t usually do anything. For the attack to work, the user must either open a file attachment or click a link that directs to a malicious site. This malicious site then launches the attack.
Teaching employees to avoid ploy like this significantly increases your cybersecurity. Security awareness training of your people is as important as having a strong firewall or antivirus.
Why Is This Published By A Business Phone Company?
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