As more information is being stored online, the value of each hack, no matter how small, is also growing. Securing small business cybersecurity might seem like a lower priority when allocating funds and resources. However, the cost of delaying is growing with every breaking news story.
It’s More Than Security, It’s Privacy
On the way to work, one of your employees is listening to their favorite podcast. The charismatic, lighthearted host suddenly breaks character. They share their deep worry over a headline they read about a new, highly contagious virus. Even including cases reported near their family's hometown!
With the story fresh in their mind, your employee arrives at work and begins their morning routine. The third subject line they see in their inbox just so happens to be about the same virus outbreak. Out of concern, and curiosity, they open the email, which contains an attachment about how to keep yourself and your family safe. Everything seems ok until they open it and, without knowing it, open the door for the data on their own computer, and possibly your entire network, to be stolen.
Preventing hacking attacks takes an effort that must evolve as quickly as the tools hackers use. And it’s not just direct attacks. Suppose your social media manager uses a program like Social Captain to help reach new potential customers. Should Social Captain fail to securely store and encrypt your passwords, your company could end up being one of the thousands, even millions, affected if someone gained access.
That’s exactly what happened in early 2020. While Social Captain claims to have fixed the problem, and Instagram has admonished them for breaching their terms of service, this is just one of the many challenges of small business cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity Failures
A few years back, Wannacry ransomware took advantage of a weakness in Microsoft’s operating system. Through it, Wannacry gained the ability to lock access to data on a user’s device, then demand a ransom. Even after paying the ransom, many users still didn’t regain access. Instead of adding the loss of their money and financial information to the cost of inadequate cybersecurity. For many, managed IT services would have provided the necessary protection against such loss.
Putting small business cybersecurity into place after the fact still might not be enough to protect your information. In the case of Ashley Madison, a hacker gained access to user profile information over 5 years ago. While many users provided fake names and other information to protect their identities, hackers also gained access to credit card data. Now, half a decade later, new hackers are still utilizing that stolen information to coerce users with bribes and threats.
Even if you think that using such elicit services as Ashley Madison comes with inherent risk, thousands of other companies have suffered such breaches. Graphic design site Canva suffered a data breach in January of 2020 in which the private information of four million user accounts was stolen.
How Small Business Cybersecurity Helps You
Managed IT services can also help prevent hackers from using another of their favorite tools: collecting emails. Through the use of Blind Copy (Bcc), hackers can convince the recipient that an email is personal, and therefore more likely to be real. Should that individual forward the email, the email address of every recipient would be at risk.
ADVANTEX prevents hacking attacks, through small business cybersecurity and managed IT services. Protecting the privacy and security of your data is a full-time job. With ADVANTEX, you can trust your data is safe and get back to focusing on your business. Get in contact with us to learn more.
