In today’s digital world, cyberattacks are getting more advanced, and no business is safe, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While big companies with lots of resources often make news when they are attacked, SMEs are just as vulnerable, maybe even more. In fact, many cyber attackers focus on SMEs because they see them as easy targets. But why is that? In this blog post, we shall explore the different reasons that SMEs become a prime target for cybercrime, the importance of vulnerability assessment, and what they can do to prevent such occurrences.
Less Cybersecurity Resources
Unlike large enterprises that can commit considerable budgets to cybersecurity infrastructure, SMEs usually have very limited financial resources. Most small businesses cannot afford a dedicated cybersecurity team and have to depend on overworked IT departments to deal with various tasks. As such, SMEs are usually found with woefully inadequate or outdated security measures in place, thus being exposed to attack.
Cyber attackers know about these weaknesses and see that many small businesses use weak passwords, old software, and badly set up networks. It is easy to take advantage of these problems, making small and medium-sized enterprises good targets for harmful people.
Lack of awareness of cybersecurity
Any of these weaknesses can be a critical threat, particularly human error, where most small business SMEs are really the biggest problem. Employees of a small business may not have sufficient education in identifying phishing emails or other malicious malware. They are probably not aware of some best practices, such as keeping strong, unique passwords and securing sensitive data. In large organisations, it is a common practice to have cybersecurity awareness with training and awareness campaigns frequently conducted. However, most SMEs often overlook this critical aspect, and thus the employees are left vulnerable to social engineering attacks. Cybercriminals know that it takes just one click or one mistake to break into an entire system.
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Positive Financial Objectives
Although the financial resources might not be as huge as in large businesses, SMEs have useful data, financial assets, and intellectual property. Cybercriminals target small businesses because they believe that such organisations will be extorted or compromised more easily. A ransomware attack would cost an SME a lot, especially if the company relies on most of its digital assets to perform daily activities.
Secondly, SMEs lack resources to be able to recover from an attack. They are targeted by hackers since such organisations know that they will readily pay for the ransom. Such companies fear that their data is lost forever or they might lose service in case they cannot function as required.
Poor Security of Third-Party Vendors
Most small businesses rely on third-party companies to provide critical services, whether it is payment processing, accounting software, or cloud storage. Third-party relationships, by their nature, also introduce additional security risks, primarily because the vendors don’t have adequate cybersecurity in place.
Third-party vendors’ weak security points are the favourite points of cyber attackers to get access to multiple SMEs at a time. After getting access to the vendor’s system, a cybercriminal may then move laterally to breach the client’s data, compromise financial transactions, or steal sensitive information. Most SMEs do not assess their vendors’ cybersecurity posture and remain vulnerable to attacks coming from trusted third parties.
Absence of data backup
Most small businesses lack a routine to back up their data regularly or a safe process to back up the same. During a ransomware attack, a company’s files are locked down and money is demanded to unlock them. Businesses that have no secure backups usually pay off the payment demands as they do not have recourse to their locked-down assets.
In larger companies, it’s common to have additional systems, cloud backups, and disaster recovery plans. For small and medium-sized businesses, however, they may forget how important it is to back up their data. Without proper backup systems, it becomes hard for them to recover without paying the ransom after getting hit by cyberattacks. Cyber attackers know this and would target businesses that have few or no ways to recover their data.
Underestimating Cybersecurity Threats
Most SMEs assume that they do not fall into the targets of cybercriminals, being small. This understanding gives the business a sense of false security, therefore leading the business to leave important measures of cybersecurity untouched. Small businesses believe that cybercrime targets huge corporations with extensive assets or data. On the contrary, this is very far from being the case.
Cybercriminals don’t necessarily target SMEs because they are small or because they have less money. They target them more for their vulnerability and less for security. To attackers, it is an opportunity. The weakly secured small business will be easier and faster to be attacked than the well-secured enterprise.
Also, read How Cybersecurity Can Protect Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
High-Volume, Low-Cost Attacks
Cybercriminals can carry out large-scale attacks against SMEs with relatively low costs and effort. In most cases, they use automated tools to launch phishing campaigns, malware infections, or denial-of-service attacks on a massive scale, targeting hundreds or thousands of small businesses at once. These types of attacks do not require much time or investment on the attacker’s part, but the results can be devastating for SMEs.
In contrast, there is a small overhead cost, so cybercriminals can afford to cast an extremely large net, hoping to scoop up an SME that didn’t have much of any defense. But if he can compromise a small number of these business owners, those returns are also nice.
Conclusion
SMEs are targeted by cyber attackers for several reasons, including having few resources, not being aware of cybersecurity, and not taking cyber threats seriously. However, these risks can be reduced with good planning and taking action like hiring cyber security auditors to assess the strength of cybersecurity. SMEs need to invest in strong cybersecurity practices, train their employees, protect their relationships with third parties, and make sure their data is backed up regularly. This would lower the possibility of cyber risks facing the small enterprise and safeguard them against the growing menace of cybercrime.
Cybernetic Global Intelligence offers professional vulnerability assessment and has cyber security auditors to identify vulnerabilities and enhance your network and data protection. Safeguard your business with our expertise. Book your consultation today! Call us at 1300 292 376, email contact@cybernetic-gi.com, or visit https://www.cyberneticgi.com/case/penetration-testing/ for more details.