50% of Cyberattactacks Target Small Business! Why Small Business Often Become a Target?

Cybercriminals will often use cyber-attacks on smaller businesses because there is less sophistication in the cybersecurity of the company and computer system along with a greater ease for hackers to take information or financial resources. In fact, CPO Magazine mentioned that 50% of all cyberattacks target small businesses.

This raises a question: why do cyber-attacks often target small businesses?

1. Valuable Data

Hackers are well aware that even small businesses send data to the Dark Web that is easy to sell for a profit — medical records, credit card information, Social Security numbers, bank account credentials, or confidential corporate information. Cybercriminals are continually looking for new ways to steal this information. They either use it to get access to bank accounts and make fraudulent purchases, or they sell it to other criminals.

2. Computing Power

Sometimes cyber criminals are just interested in conscripting a company’s computers into a bot army to launch large DDoS attacks. DDoS disrupts service to a company or group of companies by artificially generating massive amounts of online traffic. The hijacked bots contribute to the sporadic traffic.

3. Connection to Larger Businesses

To execute transactions, manage supply chains, and communicate information, today’s businesses are digitally connected to one another. Hackers target smaller businesses as a way to get into the systems of larger organizations, allegedly (but not necessarily) because larger companies are more difficult to infiltrate. This is exactly what occurred in the Target data breach.

With those reasons, small business owners must remain aware of cyber-attacks which can harm their business. These are several cyber-attacks that small businesses must be aware of!

1. Spoofing

Spoofing is a type of scam in which a criminal uses a fake email address, display name, phone number, text message, or website URL to trick a victim into thinking they’re communicating with a known, trustworthy source. Spoofing can lead to the disclosure of personal and financial information, the transfer of funds, and the download of malware, all of which can result in compromised machines, financial fraud, and identity theft. Spoofing can be used to propagate malware via links and attachments, circumvent network access controls, and limit access via denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

2. Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of software that encrypts files on a computer and prevents the user or organization from accessing them. This malware encrypts files and demands a ransom payment for the decryption key, putting businesses in a position where paying the ransom is the simplest and cheapest method to recover access to their data. Some ransomware variations have introduced extra capabilities, such as data theft, to entice ransomware victims to pay the ransom.

3. Social Engineering

Social engineering is the skill of manipulating individuals so that they divulge personal information. The types of information these criminals seek can vary, but when you’re targeted, they’re usually trying to trick you into giving them your passwords or bank information, or into gaining access to your computer so they can secretly install malicious software that gives them access to your passwords and bank information as well as control over your computer.

Conclusion

Cybercriminals will always be looking for ways to attack and steal data for their own benefits. Not only large businesses, but small businesses must enhance their cybersecurity to prevent themselves from attacks that can harm their business. They need to make sure that they own security forces who trained in cyber security best practices. Modern business must be prepared to then establish and enforce policies, and train and monitor other employees to ensure compliance, business continuity and resilience.