Many companies have been hit with ransomware attacks, which can be costly. In addition, non-profit organizations may be especially vulnerable to hacking because they don’t have the same resources as larger businesses. This means that it is important for small and medium sized businesses to take cybersecurity seriously.
Whether you’re a small business owner looking to start your own cyber security plan or a non-profit looking to protect your organization against future cyber attacks, it is important to know what areas of the business to focus on. When planning out your security system, think about how you can prevent various risks from affecting your business and customers.
In this article, we’ll go over some common types of cyber threats that affect small and medium sized businesses and the steps you can take to help protect against them.
Types of Cyber Threats Small Businesses Face:
– Phishing scams attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers etc. by masquerading as legitimate business emails or websites.
– Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any type of software or program that is used without the owner’s permission. This includes spyware, viruses, ransomware etc.
– Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are an attempt to make a service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources.
– Denial of service (DoS) attacks attempt to prevent services from operating normally and can be carried out by flooding servers with requests.
– Social engineering is the act of deceiving someone in order to obtain information or access that is otherwise off limits.
– Devices connected to the same network make it easier for hackers to gain access to a single system and spread across the network.
– Backups are critical because many cyber attacks will result in lost data, which can be devastating for a business. Multiple backups also make it easier to recover from an attack.
Steps You Can Take to Protect Yourself:
1. Train employees how to spot phishing scams and social engineering attempts by having them read up on common phishing emails and how to spot them.
2. Encrypt your data with a strong password to reduce the chance of it being hacked. Be sure to use a different password for every account, not just one or two passwords across all your accounts. A good way to keep track of these is by using a secure password manager, like LastPass.
3.Hire an IT Company that specializes in Cybersecurity. There are many cybercrime protection services that can help protect your business. In addition to these general protections there are also specific options available for small and medium sized businesses.
– Sometimes companies can’t afford full time IT staff, which may have the experience needed to develop a good defense against current threats. In this case, it is beneficial to have a company take care of cybersecurity so you can focus on running your business. This way, your business can avoid an attack before it happens.
– Cybersecurity companies also offer services that are specifically geared toward protecting small businesses. These include 24/7 monitoring for vulnerabilities and attacks, identity theft protection, penetration testing and training, and ransomware protection.
4. Back up your data regularly and store it somewhere other than where the original is located. This makes it more difficult for hackers to delete your data as well as reducing the chances of losing all of your files in one go.
5. Make sure that devices connected to the network are secure by only allowing necessary devices to access it. This is especially important for mobile devices.
6. Make sure that you are familiar with all of the apps installed on your mobile device, including any tracking or social media apps, and delete any unnecessary ones. These apps offer potential entry points for malware attacks through links in messages or pop-ups that lead to bad sites.
7. Make sure your employees understand what they can do to help prevent these types of cyber attacks from being successful against their devices and the company as a whole.