t’s easy to believe that cyber criminals are not interested in your business because you’re not a big household name, or don’t have thousands of staff across dozens of locations.
Sadly, that hasn’t been true for some time. These days, cyber criminals don’t go after specific targets. Instead, they release malware and other bad software into the wild, seeking out easy targets.
Most businesses are a lot more hackable than they realise. And the consequences are huge!
This data security safety challenge guide states that if we were to visit your business today, we’d find a weakness in your IT system within just 57 minutes!
Data security is no joke!
If you are hit with something like Crypto-locker, you can get locked out of your devices and data for days. It takes a lot of time, effort and often cash to get back to business as normal.
There are a lot of great anti-virus products out there, but never assume they will protect you from all threats. If cyber attackers really want to find a way in, there are plenty of other options available to them.
It’s all about perception. One of the biggest security problems we see is the attitude that it’s only the bigger companies that are at risk. The fact is, companies of all sizes face exactly the same threats. And cyber attackers particularly love the ones that take a blasé approach to security.
One of the most important differences is that the big boys usually survive attacks because they have sufficient resources to fall back on. Small businesses, on the other hand, usually don’t.
About half of all small businesses that experience cyber attacks go bust within the next six months.
And the bad guys love that. Bullies pick on weaknesses, after all. If they see you’ve got minimal security measures in place they’ll see it as the perfect opportunity to pick on you.
Perhaps one of the reasons that the average business owner takes the “it won’t happen to us” approach is that we usually only hear about the high profile cases in the news. The headlines are full of stories about cyber-attacks, but when the only names we hear are big ones like Facebook, Talk Talk, Netflix, Carphone Warehouse and the NHS it’s easy to switch off.
So back to the original question: would your business pass the data security safety challenge?
Remember, when it comes to cyber security you simply can’t afford to take risks and shortcuts. A proactive, pre-emptive approach is what’s needed, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
