
9 Ways to Protect Your Small Business From a Cyber Attack
Your company may be small – perhaps even *very* small – but that doesn’t mean that hackers and cyber-criminals are not interested in you. Unfortunately, small businesses are particularly susceptible to hacks and breaches, often because they think they are too insignificant to be targeted and are unprepared as a result. Consider these actual cases:
- A bandit and his gang of cyber crooks compromised at least 53 small and medium-size businesses over a two-year period, stealing enough data to cause $3 million in damages to the companies, their employees and their customers.
- A company was hacked after its old laptops were stolen in an office break-in; about a month later, funds were siphoned out through fraudulent payroll accounts.
- An employer had the identities of almost all its employees stolen when the hacker gang cracked the company’s network security.
By breaking into networks and encrypting businesses’ data, some cybercriminals have held companies virtually hostage, demanding a ransom in exchange for the password. A handful of recent statistics highlight the extent of the problem facing small businesses:58% of all cyber-attack victims are small businesses1
- Two out of three businesses suffered data loss due to inadequate security in 20182
- Ransomware attacks cost businesses more than $75B per year3
- The average ransomware demand is $133,0004
- One in four small SMBs were forced to halt operations due to a cyberattack in 2017; over half of those never recovered5
1 – Verizon 2 – Quocirca 3 – Datto 4 – Sophos 5 – Malwarebytes
The good news is that small businesses can defend themselves with a handful of smart strategies. Download our whitepaper to learn nine ways that you can protect your business from a cyber attack.
Datacate’s virtualized office technology solutions are designed to provide your business with strong controls and security against attack and compromise, all while lowering your overall IT costs. Please contact us if you would like to learn more.