How Cyber Attacks Are Affecting Small Businesses

Every single business that operates online is at risk of cyberattack. This is the price to pay for the convenience and efficiency of being online. 

Still, we should be trying to decrease hackers’ and cyber attackers’ chances to harm online businesses as much as possible. 40% of cyber attacks on businesses happen to small businesses, and it’s harder for these small businesses to recover from a cyberattack. 

Cyberattacks are a criminal offense, and the creation of malicious software to deliberately steal information is a criminal offense. 

Given that over 80% of small business owners are worried about their online safety, there needs to be more done to prevent attacks online. The good news is that you can keep your business safe with the help of the right IT company. 

Protect Your Company

A company needs to be aware of the types of attacks that can threaten their business, and then they need to put as much protection up as possible to ensure that hackers are unable to get through. 

Financial loss resulting from cyberattacks is exceptionally high, so prevention has to be the first thing a business does. 

It’s expensive to recover from a cyber attack, not just because hackers can drain a business of their financial data if they find it, but because a cyber attack can shut down a business for a period of time, and this shutdown can reduce revenue.

Every day that a business is closed due to hacking, it’s a day without sales, without profits, and without providing reliable service to a customer base. However, the right IT company can help to repair the damage done by hackers faster

Take Appropriate Measures

Cyberattacks can ruin the reputation of a business, killing them before they truly get off the ground. This then leads to further financial issues as loans that have been taken for the purpose of business growth are more difficult to pay off.

So, what can you do? 

  • Provide more secure, personalized logins for employees. While business-wide technology is easy to steal or lose, it’s not easy to steal information if every employee has a different password.
  • If employees are aware of what to look for, they can spot a cyberattack in the form of a phishing email or a worrisome link. Training and education can change this and minimize risks.
  • Multi-factor authentication is one of the many ways that you can protect your business data. It’s not just complicated passwords, but many authentication layers that can protect data and other important information about your business.
  • The right security software will make a difference to your business as will using using private clouds – your business can connect to Google cloud, for example. Every business should have a mix of firewalls, antivirus software, and encryption to ensure protected information. Speaking to the right IT company can help you get the best possible software.
  • Your business can avoid data loss when you back up your files properly to an external system. Backing things up to multiple servers, clouds, and hard drives can also help.

As hacking and cybercrime become more sophisticated, so does preventative software. It’s important to layer the security you give your business, and the right IT company can help you arrange this.

Chris Turn

Chris Turn