In today’s cyber threat landscape, no business, regardless of its size, is immune from the growing threat of cyber-crime, or any criminal activity carried out by means of computers or through the internet. That is why a lot of companies have been exerting efforts in investing and implementing advanced security technologies to defend and safeguard their companies.
Smaller companies, however, still tend to hang back in taking steps in their cyber security advancement as it also competes with their various day-to-day concerns for time and resources. Resulting for it to be often overlooked and to be given low priority, which in turn make SMEs more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. But does neglecting your cybersecurity needs really help?
To enable businesses to protect themselves with confidence, we must first elucidate things that hold SMEs back in engaging into cybersecurity.
Common misperceptions on cybersecurity
Having experienced working with businesses, large or small, globally, we listed out three basic misconceptions SMEs may have around cybercrime:
1. “It won’t happen to me”
Despite the fact that cyber-attacks have become so prevalent in this era, small businesses still tend to think that cybercriminals will spare them, thinking that their business is too small to attract hackers. Which is also the exact reason why SMEs often decline the idea of investing in advanced cybersecurity technologies.
However, contrary to this common misconception, hackers nowadays seem to love targeting SMEs. Small businesses are a “sweet spot” for them plus SMEs have far fewer security measures in place than larger organizations which means easy access for hackers.
As a matter of fact, reports highlighted that nearly half of smaller companies had experienced one attack or more in the last 12 months and it might still be getting higher for the coming years.
2. “I can’t afford to protect my business.”
Protecting your business also means investment – in manpower, finance, equipment, appliance, cybersecurity subscription, etc. – however, as most SMEs are faced with squeezed budgets and limited resources, they tend to dismiss the thought of acquiring more manpower and technologies for their cybersecurity needs.
However, reports have also shown that the average cost for repairing business to recover after a cyber-attack is $400,000, which can be fatal for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to a report published by Chubb.
This means that refusing to invest in cybersecurity technologies now may cost you even more as aside from financial costs, cyber-attacks can also cost you reputational loss.
3. “I can manage on my own.”
Over a third of SMEs said that their business is already working fine as it is and that they don’t need to invest to any security services to get protected.
While this could be true in the current environment, being complacent might not be a good thing to do as cyber-attacks and techniques always seem to constantly evolve.
Without staying abreast of new developments, today’s security measures may not be fit for the future.
Regardless of most SMEs complacency, these statistics below seem to prove that their claims above were indeed misconceptions:
What can I do?
Now that you know that being a small business doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t get hacked, you’re probably wondering how you can protect your company’s information. So here’s what you can do:
Start with evaluating your organization’s cybersecurity controls
By evaluating your current cybersecurity controls in place, you will know which area are you more vulnerable or more secured so you’ll be able to focus on the technologies that you really need.
Penetration testing(Pentest) is a simulated cyber attack in an attempt to evaluate the security of an IT infrastructure by safely trying to exploit vulnerabilities.
These vulnerabilities may exist in operating systems, services and application flaws, improper configurations or risky end-user behavior. Such assessments are also useful in validating the efficacy of defensive mechanisms, as well as, end-user adherence to security policies.
It can help you evaluate your organization’s ability to protect its networks, applications, endpoints, and users from external or internal attempts to circumvent its security controls and gain unauthorized or privileged access to protected assets.
But how? Talk to experts
Running a company definitely requires hard work. You need to focus both on your customers, products, and services and on the functionality of your in-house infrastructures as well.
From setting things up, maintaining it, up to hiring IT Professionals to manage it, IT Security definitely requires quite a bit more financial attention.
That is why the best thing is to leave it to the hands of the experts. Aside from it lets you focus more on your core business, you can also be certain that they are equipped with the right technologies and expertise to guide your way to cyber protection.
Don’t be another one of the millions of SME owners that belong to the statistics of cyber-attack victims as a consequence of abiding by their misconceptions. Wake up to the dangers of 2019, arm your organization against them, and secure the future of the business you’ve worked so hard to build.
Data Connect Technologies Pte Ltd is a dynamic ICT and Services Provider with over 15 years of experience in providing excellent IT support to companies all over the world. Got problems in your security posture? Or you’re just not sure about your IT security status?