Today it’s not uncommon to see in the news that organisations as large and varied as Adidas and the NHS have become victims of large-scale cyber attacks.
The reason why is obvious; hackers go after the big fish because the potential returns can be gigantic. But what about the small businesses, are they also targeted?
The answer is yes. An astonishing 43% of cyber-attacks target SME businesses, and 60% of those SMEs that are victims of cyber-attacks go out of business within six months. As such, you'd think that all SMEs would have a cybersecurity training programme in place.
However, 32% of managers stated that their company does not have a cybersecurity programme, and 50% of SMEs have no formal cyber security incident response plans in place.
Here are a few reasons why SMEs are such attractive targets for cybercriminals:
Shortage of expertise, training, and budgets to provide a thorough security defence.
Lack or no dedicated cybersecurity specialists on the payroll.
Limited security awareness in employees.
Security defences may be implemented but are not always kept up to date.
Lack of risk awareness and risk management policy and procedure.
Failure in securing endpoints.
Taking these points into account, let’s take a look at why your SME needs a robust cybersecurity programme in place.
The information your business has is invaluable
Even though they might not face the same threats as large organisations, small firms and start-ups do hold sensitive employee and customer data. Small businesses are prime targets for hackers interested in obtaining personal or financial information like social security numbers or banking information or know that holding that data to ransom could make them quick cash.
A cyber-attack can destroy your startup
Startups and recently founded companies can be extremely volatile. To succeed and develop into a reputable company that clients and customers can trust, they must equip themselves against potential data breaches. Suppose your company has a data breach in its early stages. In that case, it could have a significant financial impact in addition to causing severe reputational damage, which could have been easily prevented.