What Cybersecurity Challenges Are Unique to Small Businesses?

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) all share at least one thing in common: Budgets tend to be tight, and expert IT support is often one of the first places leaders go to save money. Of course, it’s not wrong to cut costs wherever possible, but limiting IT support is a bad idea.

Major cyber breaches have been all over the news over the past several months, attacks that shut down critical infrastructure, limit food supplies, or intrude into government agencies. And cybersecurity isn’t an issue isolated to large organizations.

When a large company like Colonial has to pay a multi-million dollar ransom to get their pipeline back up and running, it’s just a cost of doing business. However, when an SMB is hit with a ransom in the ten or hundreds of thousands of dollars, the entire business may be at risk.

Put simply, small organizations shouldn’t just rely on inexperienced internal teams or the “IT guy” to stand up to critical threats.

Cybersecurity Risks

SMBs often operate on thin margins, and system downtime—whether caused by a cyberattack or just faulty hardware or software—can be a major blow.

Ransomware and Supply Chain Attacks

A ransomware attack occurs when an intruder breaks into a system and shuts down all or part of an organization’s infrastructure. To get things back up and running, a ransom must be paid, usually in the form of cryptocurrency like bitcoin.

A supply chain attack refers to when a trusted third-party provider unknowingly pushes out an infected software update which then breaches their users’ systems. These cyberthreats are not mutually exclusive, and they can be difficult to detect and avoid without dedicated cybersecurity expertise on your side.

Inefficient Services

Let’s say a computer goes down, or a network, or a server. What’s the next step? Well, getting things functional again should be a top priority. Whether it’s a break/fix computer shop working for an hourly fee or someone in the office who is just “good with technology,” chances are the downtime will be significant.

For small businesses, downtime like this could cause just as much damage as a serious cyberattack.

Preventive Measures

Recognizing that an organization’s employees are the true first line of defense against cyber attacks is key to staying protected. By ensuring employees are properly trained on active threats like phishing goes a long way toward preventing the worst outcomes. Sure, firewalls and other software are important, but a team trained on cyber risk and best practices is one of the best ways to stay safe.

And, then there’s monitoring. By working with an experienced IT provider, businesses can have access to system monitoring services that will detect cyber attacks and unusual activity when they occur. This enables a rapid response—which may include deploying a backup and disaster recovery plan—that could save the entire organization.

The Managed Services Approach

If one of the main reasons SMBs neglect cybersecurity or reliable support is because of cost, it is likely because leaders are unaware that a managed service provider like LISS Technologies is both affordable and robust.

We’ll develop tailored security strategies, implement best practices, and provide reliable helpdesk support whenever issues arise. In effect, we’re an extension of your team. So, give us a call today and we can begin to patch any vulnerabilities you may have.