Why Small Businesses Have High Cyber Risk

When it comes to business cyber risk, it’s commonly assumed that larger businesses are the main targets of cybercriminals. They have more money to spend on ransoms, they have more valuable data (and more data in general), and they probably have more vulnerabilities to exploit.

What is Cyber Risk?

Cyber risk is a broad term used to label any risks (financial loss, reputational harm, data loss, etc.) that a business might face due to cyberattacks or a failure to prepare its IT and security systems.

To measure cyber risk, businesses must assess many different factors that can affect how vulnerable they may be to attack, how strong their defenses are, and how big of a target they are to cybercriminals. Broken down, it looks like this:

• Vulnerability: Knowing your weaknesses is half the battle. Do you have a lot of remote workers? Is your data stored on site or in the cloud? How sensitive is the information that you handle day to day? Do you need to adhere to any compliance standards like CMMC or HIPAA? These questions can help you get a better grasp on where you’re most vulnerable.

• Defenses: This is an overall look at your cybersecurity environment. What measures have you put in place to protect your data, your system, and your people from attacks?

• Target: It’s a common misconception that small businesses are smaller, less sought-after targets for cybercriminals. Many small businesses use this false narrative as an excuse to have poor to nonexistent cybersecurity. However, it’s actually this exact situation that makes small businesses so at risk: they’re easier targets than large enterprises or government agencies.

Why Small Businesses Are Being Targeted by Cybercriminals

61% of SMBs experienced a cyberattack last year. The fact is that cyberattacks are brutal for small businesses and are often fatal.

Why are SMBs targeted so often even though their data is generally less valuable? As mentioned above, SMBs are a cybercriminal favorite (and targeted more than larger businesses) because they typically lack the security prowess of larger businesses, making them an easier target.

Common Forms of Cyber Risk for Small Businesses

Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are common targets of cybercriminals—43% of all data breaches are targeted at SMBs—because they often lack the same security measures that larger companies do. Here are some of the most common ways that cybercriminals are attacking SMBs:

1.Remote Work and Devices: More devices means more ways a cybercriminal could infiltrate your system, especially when those devices are used remotely and connecting to your network through unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Small businesses that lack effective edge security or endpoint protection are highly susceptible to attacks that target these devices which can easily become a gateway for attackers to steal data or deliver malware.

2.Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks: People are generally the main target for cybercriminals who will use social engineering attacks to try and trick people into giving up credentials, clicking on malicious links, or downloading attachments that contain malware. This is done through the delivery of spam emails, text messages, and other forms of communication that deceive users into thinking it's from a trustworthy source. Small businesses that lack any sort of training will have a workforce that falls for these tricks more often than not.

3.Ransomware: Even though ransom demands are smaller when SMBs are targeted (averaging around $50,000), they can still be devastating, and even when the ransom is paid, these attacks can result in large amounts of costly downtime, requiring hours or days to fix.

4.Passwords: Another layer of security that’s commonly abused by hackers is brute force password guessing or, alongside social engineering, credential theft. Using standard password practices, something often done by SMBs, leaves an organization vulnerable.

How Small Businesses Can Reduce Their Cyber Risk

To help themselves, small businesses need to right the security ship and establish a strong security standing immediately in order to address the common vulnerabilities that cybercriminals will target.

Simple measures like implementing a password policy (standards for lengths, complexities, and MFA) and security awareness training for all employees can help keep credentials secure and limit the risks of social engineering attacks by training your workforce on best practices and how to identify a potential attack.

More complicated cybersecurity measures can help protect against more complex forms of attack, such as:

• Endpoint Protection: This set of tools protects individual devices connected to your business’ network that can act as entry points for cybercriminals. Using domain name system (DNS) protection, managed detection and response (MDR), and advanced persistent threat (APT) detection combine to cover all bases for device security.

• Edge Security: To protect against malicious traffic, edge security uses firewalls, antivirus software, and additional internal protection systems to filter unwanted or dangerous traffic from entering your network.

• Security Monitoring: An expert-monitored network is a safer network. Security monitoring gives you security surveillance to watch for any signs of cyberattacks or breaches to give you the best chances of reacting accordingly to limit the damage.

• Data Protection: To avoid data theft, loss, or corruption, a business’ data should be backed up, encrypted, and protected at all times. Fortify your most critical business information with a set of measures designed to maintain information security of digital data.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery: When disaster strikes, having a plan in place can mitigate the risks by having backups ready to restart important business functions, restore lost data, and ensure that your business is responding appropriately to an attack.

In Conclusion

Though the contrary might seem true, small businesses actually have a higher cyber risk than their larger, enterprise-level counterparts and without proper cybersecurity in place, a single attack can be fatal.

But, with security measures like endpoint protection, network monitoring, data protection, and a proper recovery plan, businesses can be prepared to respond and recover from attacks with limited damage.

Does your business have what it needs to stay secure against modern threats? Compare your current cybersecurity measures to what’s necessary to stay secure with this checklist.