Why Your Small Business is a Prime Target for Cyberattacks, and How to Fight Back

Cybercriminals more frequently target small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) than large companies, often due to their lack of security resources. Small businesses are three times more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than larger companies.  This alarming statistic highlights the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures within your SME.

Within SMEs themselves, hackers target high-value accounts for takeover. Accounts of CEOs, CFOs and Executive Assistants are almost twice as likely to be taken over compared to average employees. Once they have access, cybercriminals use these high-value accounts to gather intelligence or launch attacks within an organisation.

In this short article, we'll explore why your business is under attack, the specific cyber threats you face, and, most importantly, the cybersecurity solutions for your businesses that can level the playing field.

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Why Are SMEs Under Attack?

SMEs are easy pickings for cybercriminals, with several factors contributing to the growing trend of SMEs being targeted.

As a small business owner, you’ll know that sometimes limited resources can be an issue - and cybersecurity is no exception to this rule. If you’ve only allocated a limited budget and resources to cybersecurity, this can mean that it’s a smaller (or non-existent) security team defending your business from a whole range of cyber threats. 

Wondering about the implications for your business? This can result in inadequate security measures, outdated software, and a lack of dedicated security personnel. This makes it easier for attackers to exploit your vulnerabilities and gain access to your sensitive data. It’s for this reason that we’d recommend implementing effective cyber risk management for your SME. However, we appreciate that this can be challenging when resources are stretched thin, especially with the number of new ways for hackers to gain entry is growing at a rate too rapid for security teams alone to easily monitor.

Whilst your SME might not have the same vast reserves of data as a large corporation would, your business still holds valuable information that attackers can exploit for financial gain. As large companies have invested heavily in strengthening their security posture, attackers have moved on to pursue easier targets, which puts SMEs in the firing line. This includes customer data, financial records, intellectual property, and even access to larger organisations through supply chain connections. 

Instead of targeting a large enterprise for one big pay day, hackers are finding success in hacking several small businesses at a time to gain serious profits. Cybercriminals often perceive SMEs as easier targets due to a perceived lack of security resources and expertise. This means that you may be a more attractive target compared to larger organisations with more robust security postures. Within SMEs, hackers often target high-value accounts like CEOs, CFOs, and Executive Assistants, as these accounts can provide greater access and control.

Additionally, because many SMEs are part of larger supply chains, attackers may see you as the “weakest link”, targeting you as a way to gain access to larger, more valuable organisations. By compromising your SME's systems, attackers can potentially infiltrate the networks of your partners or clients, leading to more significant breaches. This highlights the interconnected nature of SME cybersecurity and the importance of securing every link in the supply chain.

The evolving threat landscape means that the methods used by these cybercriminals are constantly changing, making it challenging for businesses with limited security expertise to keep up. New threats emerge regularly, and attackers are becoming more sophisticated in their techniques. This means that your cyber risk management for your SME must be dynamic and adaptable to stay ahead of the curve.

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What can I do to protect my SME?

Whilst the challenges are significant, you can take proactive steps to strengthen your SME cybersecurity and mitigate their risk. 

As a first step, you should significantly improve your basic cyber hygiene to protect yourself from becoming yet another cyberattack statistic. This includes adopting best practices such as deploying anti-virus and anti-malware software software, conducting vulnerability scans and applying security patches, using multi-factor authentication, strong password policies, backups, and training and testing your employees to be aware of security threats and social engineering attacks they may face while online.

Once the basics are in place, it’s time to put into place network security. Just as you would secure the physical perimeter of your business, you need to secure your digital perimeter. Think of this as being similar to the rooms in your house where you can control what’s in the room and who can come in and out. Endpoint protection technologies can help achieve real-time visibility of device activity and improve threat detection and response. 

Understanding the attractiveness of what you have that an attacker may want is key to putting the right security controls in place to protect, detect, and respond to any signs of intrusion as early as possible, reducing the potential costs associated with a data breach

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Cyber Risk Management for SMEs: Leveraging External Expertise

Are you an SME owner, and finding building and maintaining a robust cybersecurity program challenging due to limited resources and expertise? This is where partnering with a trusted cybersecurity provider can be invaluable. At Digital Oversight AI, we offer a range of cybersecurity solutions for small businesses, including:

• SECURE: Security Operations Centre (SOC) as a Service: Our SOC as a Service solution means you will no longer need to compromise on cybersecurity solutions because of a lack of resources or security experts. This service protects you against security breaches by monitoring your company continuously, working to identify, analyse, and respond to active threats seen in your company. This includes 24/7 security monitoring, targeted threat intelligence, vulnerability management and critical incident automated email alerts of any malicious activity. This provides you full visibility across all its infrastructure and a sophisticated security posture, without the burden and cost of building your own Security Operations Centre.

Alongside our SECURE Service, we offer two affordable solutions: 

• CYBER ASSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT PLATFORM (CARM): Our CARM platform is a purpose-built, automated platform that can identify, automatically update, monitor and gain assurance of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) of all your Cyber risks. This platform streamlines cyber risk management for SMEs, making it easier to implement and maintain effective security controls.
  
  
• VIRTUAL CISO: Our Virtual CISO solution works with you to deliver the cyber risk management and operational resilience that drives consistent mitigation, but also builds the capabilities to anticipate, withstand, respond, and adapt positively to situations that arise, allowing your operations to continue during adverse events that would otherwise close the business. This new approach and model of sustainable cybersecurity and resilience is a vital component of any business in the Digital Age.
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Take Control of Your SME Cybersecurity

In today's digital age, SME cybersecurity is not just an IT issue; it's a business imperative. By taking proactive steps to strengthen your defenses and leverage the expertise of trusted cybersecurity partners, you can mitigate your risk, protect your valuable assets, and ensure the continued success of your business. Don't wait until it's too late – take control of your cybersecurity today.

Contact us to discuss your SME cybersecurity needs and learn how our cybersecurity solutions for small businesses can help you build a more resilient and secure organisation.