It’s easier said than done to own and operate a small or medium-sized business (SMB). It requires a significant investment of time, effort, and resources in terms of time, effort, and attention. It’s comparable to safeguarding your small business against cybercriminals. Regrettably, some small business owners opt to skip a few measures in cyber protection. As a result, they become cybercrime victims.
Defining Cyberattacks
A cyber attack is a type of cybercrime in which one or more computers are used to assault more computers or networks. A cyber attack can be used to deliberately destroy devices, steal data, or launch subsequent attacks from a compromised computer. Malware, phishing, ransomware, and denial of service attacks are common.’
Why Cyberattacks Happen
Cyberattacks by hacktivists are often associated with cyber warfare or cyberterrorism. In other words, people’s motivations vary. Three distinct motivations exist: criminal, political, and personal.
Criminally motivated attackers might steal money, data, or damage a business. Similarly, those motivated by personal gains, such as dissatisfied current or former workers, will steal money, data, or even the ability to damage a business’s system.
However, they are primarily interested in retaliation. Sociopolitical attackers want publicity for their causes. As a result, they publicize their attacks, referred to as hacktivism.
Cyberattacks are also motivated by espionage, spying (to obtain an unfair competitive edge), and intellectual challenges.
What Are Common Types of Cyberattacks?
Cybercriminals utilize sophisticated technologies to assault businesses in today’s digital economy. Their attacks are directed at personal computers, computer networks, information technology infrastructure, and information technology systems. Several instances of common cyberattacks include the following:
Backdoor Trojan
A backdoor Trojan exploits a backdoor vulnerability in a victim’s system, providing the attacker remote, near-total control. The Trojan may also be used for other sorts of cybercrime, such as joining the computers of a group of victims to establish a botnet or zombie network.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack
XSS attacks inject malicious code into a legitimate website or application script via third-party online resources to obtain a user’s information. Although attackers frequently utilize JavaScript for XSS assaults, they can also use Microsoft VBScript, ActiveX, or Adobe Flash.
Denial-of-service (DoS)
Attacks like denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) overwhelm a system’s resources, making it incapable of responding to service requests and degrading its performance. This attack is frequently employed as a prelude to a subsequent attack.
DNS tunneling
DNS tunneling, a transactional protocol, is used by cybercriminals to trade application data, such as secretly harvesting data or establishing a communication channel with an unknown server, such as a command and control (C&C) exchange.
Malware
Malware is a sort of malicious software that impairs the operation of infected machines. Most malware versions destroy data by deleting or wiping essential operating system files.
5 Reasons to Protect Your Small Business From Cyber Attacks
1. Extends the life span of your products or services
While a cyber assault can be devastating for your business, you can minimize or prevent the risks and threats by following a few basic actions to mitigate or avoid the attacks. It saves you time and money while enabling your business to thrive and expand.
2. Better relationships with customers
While small-scale cyberattacks might erode trust, large-scale cyberattacks can result in client loss. Maintaining the privacy of your client’s data and information will encourage them to return and strengthen your relationships. The more reassuring you can be, the more likely they will trust you to restore their data.
3. Small Businesses Have Lots of Data to Protect
Typically, startups and small firms compensate for their lack of financial value by accumulating massive amounts of data. Numerous attackers understand the value of data (particularly intellectual property and personally identifiable information) and see it as a valuable resource to steal, use, barter, or sell.
According to the most recent data from Verizon’s 2020 DBIR, 86 percent of breaches in 2019 were motivated by money, while 10% were motivated by espionage. Over half of the actors (cybercriminals) are linked to organized crime, while approximately 10% are linked to foreign governments.
4. Cybercriminals May Target You as a Way to Attack “Bigger Fish”
At times, cybercriminals attack small firms to obtain access to the larger enterprises and organizations they are affiliated with. In essence, you are a stepping stone or a means to an end for them. Ouch. We understand how distressing this is.
Consider the following: Do you believe it is impossible? Here are a few examples of cyber attacks on small businesses that used other enterprises to get access to more significant or more valued targets
- Breach of data on a specified target. In 2013, hackers got access to the systems of a subcontractor for HVAC, refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning to target Target, a more prominent firm. A single breach resulted in the theft of 40 million customer records. Later that year, Target agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle claims from 47 states and the District of Columbia, bringing an investigation into the breach to a close.
- The United States of America’s utilities. In 2018, hundreds of US power grid contractors and subcontractors were targeted as a staging area for an attack on the country’s electric grid by a foreign government. After the FBI and Homeland Security took decisive action, the Russian campaign to undermine the government ended. They alerted contractors who were unaware of hacking their systems.
- Acer. BleepingComputer reports that the threat actor group REvil attacked the electronics manufacturer despite Acer’s protestations in March 2021. According to BleepingComputer, Acer faces the most significant ransomware demand recorded, at $50 million. According to the article, assaulted by exploiting a weakness in an Acer domain Microsoft Exchange server.
5. Your Business’s Brand and Reputation Are at Stake
Suppose cybercriminals successfully steal data from your company’s IT equipment, infrastructure, or website. In that case, customers may be unwilling to do business with you again. You’ve become a liability in their eyes. They’re more likely to move to one of your competitors in the future than risk having their data compromised by another of your minor company cybersecurity assaults or data breaches.
These effects include intellectual property, client loss, reputational damage, and website downtime. Utilizing an SSL/TLS certificate to ensure that your website is provided over the safe, encrypted HTTPS protocol is one way to assist in securing your data on websites. According to our April 2020 survey, slightly more than half (52 percent) of small websites use HTTPS.
How to Protect Your Small Business From Cyber Attacks?
Simply being a small business owner does not protect you from hacker notice – or reach. Small firms are particularly vulnerable to hackers and breaches due to their limited resources and potential lack of knowledge. Several techniques for defending your business from a cyber assault include the following:
1. Understand What’s Sensitive Data and What’s Not
While credit card information is typically the focus of cyber assaults, depending on your company, hackers may also be interested in customer profiles, account information, email addresses, and even phone numbers that you have on hand, which they could use.
2. Educate Your Employees
You’ll benefit if your personnel are aware of cyber assaults and how to safeguard your data. Remind employees regularly not to open attachments from unknown or unexpected sources, develop methods for encrypting personal or sensitive data, and require employees to change their passwords regularly. Additionally, encourage your personnel to do a physical check to make unexpected payments if they receive frantic demands. It is a prevalent type of fraud.
3. Make Sure You’ve Got the Right Partners and Platforms
Cybersecurity for your company is only as strong as the systems and partners on which it relies. Take the following into consideration:
- Are you using a WAF (web application firewall) to secure your website?
- Is your online store PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant (payment card industry data security standards)? It safeguards your entire payment network against digital data security breaches rather than simply a single card.
- Is your website hosting firm staffed by professionals who patch network and security issues regularly to minimize the chance of an attack?
4. Secure Your Hardware
Physical property theft may result in data breaches. If your servers, laptops, cell phones, or other equipment are not secure and difficult to steal, your business is at risk. While surveillance cameras and alarms are beneficial, physically securing computers and servers is significantly more effective.
5. Hire Security
Engage a third-party specialist to evaluate your risks and, where appropriate, secure your physical and digital property and data. However, undertake due diligence to ensure that the company you entrust your business to is legitimate.
When contemplating cyber insurance coverage, check with your agent or broker to determine whether your insurance provider also offers cyber counseling and risk management services.
Conclusion
Cybercrime is a fact of life for all small businesses, and cyber attacks will continue to increase in frequency. To protect your business, you must take a proactive stance on cyber security. Verify that you are taking preventative measures to avoid cyberattacks and data breaches and that you are protected in the case of an attack. You do not want to be the following small business to become a victim of cybercrime.
To discover more about keeping your small business safe, visit ICT Distribution.
