I often come across cybersecurity risks when meeting with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) managers.
Very often, I am confronted with their misunderstanding of the threats posed by these risks and the serious damages they can cause to SMEs.
The justification given by some managers: « I am neither rich nor famous, my SME is too small …. I’m not an interesting target for a hacker. This will not happen to me » is only a myth.
Many potentially very damaging attacks are not targeted. This is the example of ransomwares (malwares that take hostage all your data).
The choice of a target also depends on the level of protection and estimated earnings. Thus, a company with little or no protection can be targeted despite a low pecuniary potential.
Economic intelligence is also a reason for attacks and mainly in the world of SMEs where innovation is very present.
This apparent lack of proper risk assessment leaves many small businesses vulnerable to loss of valuable data and collateral effects: loss of revenue, loss of customers and damaged reputation.
Cyber criminals are not only interested in your data but also by:
- your bandwidth that they can use to attack other systems or to send spam
- your computers that they can also use to infect or attack other systems and to send spam
- your storage space to store their own data
- your web server that they can use to host phishing sites, share their illegal material or propagate malicious programs by infecting unsuspecting users of your site
You can never 100% avoid all the risks associated with cybercrime but most online attacks can be avoided or detected with basic security practices for your staff, processes and IT systems.
For example :
- Training of staff
- Regular software updates
- Using anti-virus and anti-malware software
- Using complex passwords
- Data Encryption
- Secure wifi configuration
- …
These security practices are as important as locking your doors or putting your money in a safe. You can manage your online security in the same way that you protect any other aspect of your business.
Companies that invest in cyber security will benefit from it as it will become a requirement for customers to work only with vendors that invest in information security.
Contact us for a free diagnosis of the Cyber security of your business
E mail: cybersecurity@itaasc.com
Website: http://www.itaasc.com