In the world of cyber security, size matters. The smaller you are, the larger the threat you face.
Leaders of small and midsize businesses tend to think their size makes them unappealing to cyber thieves when the opposite is true. Smaller companies don’t always see the need to protect their data as thoroughly as larger organizations. The idea being – with a smaller customer base, access to fewer passwords and limited sets of credit card numbers – it’s just not worth the effort for cyber thieves. But cyber attackers are after more than passwords and credit card numbers, and smaller organizations often provide the steppingstones those criminals need.
“They are then looking to see where else they can move laterally to find other business or organizations that they now have visibility into now that they are inside the trusted network,” says Symantec business security expert Mark Guntrip.
All businesses are targets, regardless of size. Symantec’s Internet Threat Report for 2014 says one out of every five businesses with fewer than 250 employees was targeted by a spear phishing attack in 2013. The same kinds of attacks were sent to 50 percent of business with more than 2,501 employees. In particular, the mining, manufacturing and public administration industries had the greatest risk. Though the percentages of targeted attacks were comparable across businesses of all sizes, small businesses do themselves a disservice by thinking small when it comes to security.
Guntrip urges businesses to think big. “Deploy similar security to larger companies. Consider protecting your endpoints, your servers, your network and your gateways.” He recommends cloud-based security solutions for the small or even emerging business.
“Pretty much all businesses can look to the cloud when they choose. It can be the easiest choice – quick to set up, easy to maintain, and allows a small and growing business to focus on growth, not managing IT infrastructure.”
Reasons Small Businesses Should Consider Cloud Based Security
• Easy: There is no hardware or software to install, manage, patch or upgrade. As a result, it takes less work to maintain the platform.
• Affordable: Without hardware or software to purchase, there is little capital expenditure needed. Cloud security is normally charged for as a subscription, so organizations can pay as they go.
• Flexible: Cloud-based security can be more easily configured to support additional employees or locations for growing businesses.
• Manageable: Leaders maintain control through a portal and reporting, giving them the ability to make changes as well as have visibility into what’s happening.
Small businesses should assume they’ll be targeted at some point. “’Good enough’ security is only good enough until you get hit,” warns Guntrip. “Then it’s really not good enough at all.”
Read the full article here.