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President Biden declared April 3 – May 6, 2023 National Small Business Week, celebrating the more than 32 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) that are the glue of our communities and that make our economy strong. The U.S. Small Business Administration has celebrated this week for more than 50 years with awards, recognition and fanfare.
Unfortunately, the evolving cyber threat landscape, a peril for large and small businesses alike, must also be seen and heard.
Cybersecurity threats on the upswing
There’s a common perception that cybersecurity applies only to banks, insurance companies and other financial services companies – the big fish, as it were. But increasingly, as the big fish invest in cybersecurity and fortify their defenses, cyber criminals are pivoting and going after softer targets which are SMBs.
Every day, some 300,000 new pieces of malware are created. Cyber criminals have the technical sophistication to cast a wide net, and because of our interconnectedness on the internet, they can wreak all kinds of havoc.
According to the New York attorney general, at least half of confirmed data breaches target SMBs. These breaches can cause reputational harm, halt business operations, and inflict investigatory and legal costs – enough pain to put a company out of business.
Despite this clear and present danger, perhaps 10% of SMBs have effective security measures in place to protect customer information and business operations.
How to quickly take control
Oddly enough, the primary weaknesses in the cybersecurity defenses of SMBs are employees and emails. One hour of training staff on spotting phishing emails, improving their browsing practices, and not downloading suspicious files or clicking bad links, would significantly reduce risk. Other simple measures include:
- Turn on multifactor authentication
- Do software updates. Avail yourself of all automatic updates.
- Check email defensively. Think before clicking.
- Use strong passwords and change them frequently
While it’s true that it takes resources to really shore up cybersecurity defenses, these relatively simple, accessible steps will go a long way to guarding against mounting cyber ills.
