Hackers target small businesses because small businesses are the easiest money. You hear about Target, Home Depot, Capital One, and Facebook because those breaches make the news. You don't hear about the dry cleaner, the dental office, or the three-person law firm down the street. Yet small businesses make up 99.7% of US employers, according to the Small Business Administration, and they take the brunt of the attacks.
If you run a business, you're a target. Your industry doesn't matter. What you sell doesn't matter. Cybercriminals cast a wide net and go after everyone, because it works. A 2018 Ponemon Institute survey found 67% of small and midsize businesses in the US and UK had been hit by a cyber-attack. Once they're in, they extort money, steal customer records, and wreck the reputation you spent years building.
Three reasons you're in the crosshairs
- You're the most exposed. Most owners and managers aren't tracking network security or the latest threats. You have a business to run. Security loses out to marketing, sales, and customer support, so it gets little budget or none at all. The dangerous part is the logic that comes with it: it hasn't happened to me, so it never will.
- You don't take it seriously, starting with passwords. Because owners feel safe, they don't lock down the network, and they don't lock down passwords either. Trace Security found that up to 80% of all breaches trace back to a single weakness: weak passwords. People still guard banking logins and customer records with "12345" and "password." Strong passwords, changed on a regular schedule, shut down most of those attacks.
- You don't have the resources, and hackers know it. Larger companies usually have more money and people to spend on IT security. Big targets don't always get it right, as the headlines prove, but a hacker assumes they'll burn more time and effort breaking in. Small businesses rarely have the capital or staff for serious security, so attackers go after them with confidence.
What to do about it
Going years without a major problem is not a security plan. The number of threats grows every day. The common excuse, "I don't have the time or resources for good security," no longer holds. You don't need to hire IT staff. You don't need to spend a fortune. IT security has come a long way in the last five years. An outside firm can do the heavy lifting, monitor your network around the clock, and give you support around the clock.
Hackers use technology against you. You can turn it back on them. Find an experienced IT security firm, tell them what your network needs, and let them go to work.