Think your small business is safe from cybercriminals? Think again. In fact, small businesses are more likely than large ones to be targeted by cybercriminals. Large companies have dedicated IT departments, cybersecurity infrastructure, and potentially risk consultants to help harden them against cyberattacks. By contrast, small businesses typically don’t spend nearly as much money on cybersecurity. The Cyberthreat Defense Report found that 78% of Canadian organizations experienced a cyberattack within a 12-month period. So, what cybersecurity threats can businesses expect?
Social Engineering
Social engineering just means tricking a person, not a computer. Picture a cybercriminal who calls a help line and, armed with some illegally gained personal information, convinces a worker to reset a password. Social engineering is frequently a component of cyberattacks.
Phishing
Phishing is when a malicious email tricks a user into surrendering their credentials or information. Imagine an email that looks like it’s from your bank. You click the link, enter your information on a site that looks like your bank, and then criminals have your information.
Phishing may also take the form of spear-phishing. That is, a phishing attack targeting a specific person. For example, you get an email that looks like it’s from your business partner asking you to make a payment to a vendor—but it’s actually a cybercriminal impersonating your business partner.
Malware
Malware is malicious software. It can end up in your system via link, email, or even a thumb drive.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a specific type of malware that locks down a user’s system or data and demands a ransom in exchange for unlocking. The criminals will generally demand cryptocurrency in exchange for unlocking your data. A third of firms don’t get their data back even after paying the ransom, and around 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyberattack.
Insider Threat
An insider threat is an employee, vendor, or some other person with inside access who harms your business. This could be for cash or simple spite. As these are hard to defend against, you want to make sure you have good data security in place, have strong password requirements, make sure credentials are voided as soon as terminations or layoffs happen, and ensure that employees only access the data they need, not everything in the system.
Distributed Denial-of-Service
A distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) is when an attacker crashes a site or service by flooding it with more traffic than it can handle. Imagine an attacker making hundreds of calls to your company phone system, effectively blocking anyone else from calling you. That’s what’s happening, except to your website, server, cloud, or other digital space. Good providers offer traffic mitigation or DDoS protection.
DNS Hijacking
Also called DNS redirection or DNS poisoning, DNS hijacking redirects queries to a domain name system (DNS) over to a malicious website that has malware or other bad stuff. Imagine searching for an address to a department store, going there, and then realizing that a pawn shop of dubious legality has changed the information you looked up to try to win your business instead. Put that in the online space and that’s DNS hijacking.
Final Thoughts
Small businesses should have a comprehensive security plan in place to protect themselves against cybercrime. This includes preventing data loss, reviewing staff access privileges, and training employees on how to use the internet. Prevention, rather than cure, is better when it comes to cybercrime, say experts.
Have you considered managed network solutions to help you manage your security? Our team can help you evaluate a NaaS solution. Speak to us today!
