BY: Dave Kelly, CTO, SensCy
We all understand that the last few years have been a difficult time for many small businesses. But small business owners are resilient and have managed to change the way in which we do business to survive—and thrive—in this new era.
There is a risk on the horizon that cannot be ignored. According to CyberSecurity Magazine, 61% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) have reported at least one cyberattack during the previous year and 43% of all data breaches now involve SMBs. While these statistics are alarming, the good news is that there are many cost-effective things that can be done to significantly reduce the risk of a successful attack and/or ensure the ability to recover, should an incident occur.
Employee training
Our employees are our greatest asset, but when it comes to cybersecurity, they can also be our greatest risk. This has been a consistent trend in cybersecurity for many years, but it can be avoided with persistent cybersecurity awareness and policy.
Phishing
Phishing is a form of social engineering and is a common technique used by hackers to trick employees into divulging company information or to download malicious code. This technique takes advantage of two traits that all our best employees have: trust and a desire to help others.
Phishing attacks can occur through email, text messages, instant messaging, social media, or phone calls. The common thread of a phishing attack is to present an immediate problem to our employee and ask for their help to solve it.
How easy is it for hackers to pull off social engineering?
According to a recent report in Forbes, employees of small businesses with less than 100 employees will experience 350% more social engineering attacks than employees of larger enterprises. Hackers have realized that small business employees are less prepared to deal with these situations due to a lack of consistent training on how to identify social engineering.
SensCy recommends a cybersecurity training program that involves 10 to 15-minute lessons every other month. By committing to a cybersecurity education program, you can protect your greatest asset (your employees), safeguard your business, and sleep better at night knowing you are creating a front-line defense against cyber criminals.
For more information on cybersecurity, visit www.senscy.com.
