Small businesses still face big threats as cybercriminals up the ante in hacking company security systems.

PwC’s 2018 Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey identified cybercrime as the most disruptive economic crime likely to affect organisations.

Just because you run a small to medium enterprise (SME), it doesn’t make your business immune to hackers.

“Security technical skills are expensive and hard to come by, so SME owners try to do everything themselves,” says Ryan McGee, Head of Security Solutions at Vox.

The trouble with that is, you can’t always be the Jack of all trades, and often you don’t know what to protect the business against, making it easy for you to miss vital security soft spots.

Here are the top three Cybersecurity threats to be aware of:

  1. Email security

According to Mimecast’s State of Email Security 2019 report, the number of global phishing attacks have increased. Last year 94% of businesses experienced phishing attacks, the report found.

If your SME is affected and you give into the hacker’s demands, your business could join 70% of SMEs that close their doors within six months of the breach after paying ransomware. Those that don’t close face reputational damage, loss of data, and expose their customer information to hackers.

  1. Endpoint security

An antivirus doesn’t protect you from all cyber threats. “Technology advances, and evolution of the Internet leaves businesses more exposed to cyber-crime, with an estimated 325 000 unique threats every day,” says Mayleen Bywater, former Product Manager for Security Solutions at Vox.

Endpoints are seen by hackers as the easiest way of gaining access to a network. This is mainly because they are not fixed within the office environment. “Investing in endpoint security, provides an additional barrier to entry for otherwise easy targets,” says Bywater.

  1. Cloud security

The advent of Cloud applications has resulted in a bigger chance for a breach to occur in your business’ security.

70% of SMEs that pay after a ransomware attack will close their doors within six months of the breach. those that don’t close still suffer reputational damage, loss of data, and exposed customer information that can potentially be distributed in the public domain.

 

Get a full-service IT partner

Security evolves everyday, so an IT partner who offers end-to-end managed services can help with an initial security assessment.

“Very few SMEs understand how best to do this assessment and how to really understand vulnerabilities,” says Craig Freer, Executive Head of Cloud at Vox. “It is quite complex for them to secure themselves as best as possible. It really is a case of they do not know what they do not know,” he adds.

Here are the traits to look for in a reliable managed IT partner:

  • The company should have a team of people that can provide a broad spectrum of services – look for a one stop solution – a company that can service all your needs
  • They should be very familiar with prevailing technologies
  • Various certifications to back up what they are offering
  • A track record with experience in similar vertical industries and in depth experience serving your specific needs
  • Check if they provide a monthly service level agreement (SLA), to ensure you receive a full suite of services without discrepancies