There is an obvious pattern developing in 2020: business cyberattacks are definitely rising, especially phishing and ransomware threats. But you often see big companies, conglomerates, and government agencies on that list, not small businesses. Is small business risk really high enough that you should be worrying about cyberattacks against your company – and paying for security to prevent them?
The short answer is yes. Every business is at risk for cybercrime. While you may see more stories about cyberattacks against big companies like Twitter and Barnes & Noble, that’s just because they’re correspondingly bigger, buzzier cyberattacks.
Cyberattacks Are One Size Fits All
Thousands of cyberattacks are launched against companies of every size every day, and the threat landscape for small businesses is just as dangerous as it is for big corporations or government agencies.
- A new cyberattack is launched every 39 seconds
- In 2020, 80% of firms have seen an increase in cyberattacks
- Two in five SMBs have been the victim of a ransomware attack
- 43% of data breaches in the last 12 months involved small businesses
- 47% of small businesses aren’t adequately prepared for a cyberattack
- Small businesses receive 94% of their attack threats via email.
- 70% of SMBs had employee passwords compromised in the last year
- 54% of small businesses have no plan in place to deal with a cyberattack
- Over 60% of small businesses neglect cybersecurity awareness training
- Ransomware was the biggest threat to SMBs in the last 12 months
Yes, That Includes Your Business
The data is clear: every business is at risk for cyberattacks, and that risk is growing. 2020 has been a banner year for cybercrime, especially in the growing area of cybercrime “as a service”. A massive increase of more than 600% in phishing threats has ramped up threats against small and large businesses – over 80% of cybercrime is phishing-based. Your business needs to be protected from cyberattacks – and we can help.
Increase Phishing Resistance
The top mitigation that businesses can take to reduce their risk of cybercrime is increased security awareness training including phishing resistance. Security awareness training provides both short term and long term benefits to protect businesses from cybercrime. Regularly updated security awareness and phishing resistance training reduces your risk of falling victim to a damaging cyberattack by up to 70%.
Security Awareness Training is essential for businesses of any size. For more information on security training for your staff or Optistar’s other Security and IT solutions, contact us at 888-782-7003 or ask@optistartech.com.
Protect Your Credentials
Let’s face it: employees are notoriously lax with password hygiene. A stunning 91% of participants in a recent survey said that they understand the risk of password reuse, but 59% admitted to doing it anyway – and 48% of workers use the same passwords in both their personal and work accounts. It’s essential to be prepared for the possibility that your employees’ credentials will become compromised, and that gives the bad guys a big opening to attack your business.
We can help. You need to secure your access points, and a password alone isn’t going to cut it. Visit here for more information on our Identity Management Solutions and schedule a 15 minute consultation with one of our Senior Cybersecurity Consultants in order to get answers to any questions you may have. If you’d rather email us and request more information, you can reach us at ask@optistartech.com.
Watch Your Back
Employee credentials become compromised in many different ways, and each one of them endangers your business. Reusing password, recycling password, writing down passwords, sharing passwords, making weak passwords: they’re all ways that information that can harm your business ends up in Dark Web data dumps. What if your employee is using the same password for their O365 login at work and their login for their doctor’s online portal, and that password is stolen? You and your employee may never even know that the password was compromised, but a cybercriminal just got a key to your front door.
Dark Web monitoring creates peace-of-mind. Don’t wonder if one of your employee credentials is compromised – KNOW. With Dark Web monitoring, your protected credentials are monitored 24/7/365. We use real-time data powering human and machine intelligence to look into every nasty corner of the Dark Web so that in the event your employee credentials hit Dark Web data markets or dumps, we alert you to the vulnerability fast, allowing you to address it before the bad guys do.
The Bottom Line About Small Business Cybersecurity
It has never been more important to make sure that your small business has the best possible cybersecurity solutions working for you. It’s even more mission critical to have strong protection for your systems and data if your company handles sensitive information that’s protected by data privacy and compliance statutes. Cyberattack risks have been rising all year and we expect that trend to continue in 2021.
Contact our Senior Technology Consultants to get information about your company’s Dark Web exposure, learn more about the synergy and benefits of a digital risk protection platform for your business, obtain information on Security Awareness Training for your employees, and get the help that you need to make sure that your business is ready to withstand cyberattacks.
– ID Agent
If you have questions, or if you’d like more information on Optistar’s IT Services, click below and complete the form or call us at 617-459-4409.
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