Most attacks on a small business network come down to three plays: ransomware, DDoS extortion, and a hacker breaking in directly. The criminals running them are rarely shy about it. Many will happily tell you how they got into a network or how they walked away with thousands after extorting an owner whose company is now in ruins.
They don't care what damage they do. They care about one thing: money. If a method works, and plenty do, they keep using it.
Staying a step ahead comes down to two things. Know the threats that are circulating right now, and run current technology built to stop them.
Ransomware is the first one you'll meet
It's malware, and it's common. It can reach your computers and your network a few different ways:
- Ad networks. Bad ads show up on social media and on sites you trust. Someone clicks a compromised ad or pop-up, and a file starts downloading before they know what happened. This is where anti-malware and anti-ransomware tools earn their keep.
- Malicious links. You get an email that looks legitimate, supposedly from your bank, a store you use, or even a colleague. It has a link or a file. Click it, and the ransomware installs.
- Hidden files on thumb drives. This happens far too often. Someone brings a thumb drive from home with a malicious file on it that they don't know about. They plug it into a work machine, and the file installs itself.
However it lands, the result is the same. The ransomware starts encrypting your files, or it locks you out of the computer entirely. Then you get a full-screen message: Pay up or never access your files again. Some programs threaten to delete everything. Others say they'll never give your access back.
DDoS extortion knocks you offline until you pay
DDoS stands for distributed denial of service, and it's an easy way for hackers to take down your online presence. The attack floods your network with fake access requests, as if millions of people tried to load your website at once.
Your network can't handle that volume, so it goes down. The hackers keep the attack running until you take action, meaning until you pay. If you don't, they do everything they can to keep you offline and bleed your business dry. When you rely on internet traffic, that's devastating, which is exactly why many businesses end up paying.
Direct attacks go straight for your data
Some hackers skip the bots and malware and do the work by hand. They probe your network security looking for a way through. If they get in, they go after specific files: critical business records, customer data, anything worth taking.
Once they have it, they might tell you and ask for money to give it back. Or they say nothing and quietly sell it on the black market. Either way, a criminal has your sensitive data, and at that point there's nothing you can do about it.
The catch is that you can do plenty before it gets to that point
Prevention is the whole game, and it comes back to the same two points:
- Know the threats that are circulating right now.
- Run current technology built to stop them.
Do both, and work with an experienced IT services company, and you change the outcome. You put a defensive wall between your business and the people who want to take it from you.