If you run a small business and you don’t have high level security software in place for your computer systems and your network, then you are at great risk of falling victim to a cyber attack.
Bharat Bhise HNA was just giving a talk about this at a tech conference in California, and it seems that small businesses are more at risk than they ever have been before. In the past hackers would generally look to go after big companies or private individuals, but many have now switched their focus to small businesses, and here is why.
Simplicity
One of the main reasons why so many small businesses are at risk is because hackers know that they are highly likely to eater have outdated or non-existent security. This for them is like taking candy from a baby and they will know that they can easily get into the systems without very much hard work.
More Information
The reason why the bigger companies were targeted in the past was because there were still so many small businesses who just didn’t rely as heavily on computer systems as they do now. Over the years however many small businesses have made the switch to storing data on computers rather than storing paperwork, and that means that hackers can now obtain more information than they were ever likely to in the past. Simply put there is more of an incentive to hack small businesses now than there ever was before.
Getting Away With It
If a large corporation or a government agency is hacked, then the authorities will be working tirelessly to catch the individual or the group involved. This is in part because of the difficulty of the hack, and in part because of who they have attacked. In the case of a small business however, there is far less concern from the authorities about who did it, as they are more concerned with catching hackers who have more potential. This is essentially the equivalent of a pick-pocketer looking to hit 10 victims per day, versus a bank robber who pulls off one big heist, the gains may be smaller, but so is the risk of getting caught.
Dangers
If your small business is hacked then you are going to be at risk of losing some highly sensitive information about your staff and your customers, as well as your business. You run the risk of massively damaging your reputation amongst existing and future customers, you can guarantee that you are going to lose days where your business won’t be operational and the entire debacle is going to cost you a sizable amount of money.
There is no point in running this risk, especially given that attacks on small businesses are on the rise. Make sure that you are doing all that you can to protect yourself, your business and your customers by installing high level security software.
