What do the terms ‘malware’ and ‘ransomware’ mean to you? Cybercrime and SME’s – why your business could be next.
Why? Well according to recent government figures, some 53 per cent of SMEs were the targets of cyber crime in 2023.
So why should SMEs in particular be concerned about cyber-attacks? Many SMEs believe that they are too small or too niche to be attractive to ransomware criminals. That attitude is exactly why SMEs can find themselves in the crosshairs.
Off-the-shelf antivirus protection packages are no match against sophisticated cyber criminals who will simply brush aside virus protection software. It’s like throwing a cup of water on a house-fire. Also, cyber criminals could well be targeting larger companies along your supply chain.
Why would a cyber criminal kill the goose that has just started to lay golden eggs?
One small business we know fell victim to a devastating ransomware assault. A member of staff at a dental practice in the Midlands received what looked like an invoice from a supplier.
There was nothing they could do. A colleague had worked on a home computer at the weekend and saved the work onto a memory stick.
A client was attending a trade exhibition and was on an exhibitor’s chat room. Up popped an advertisement for exhibition furniture. It looked interesting, so they clicked on it to find out more.
Not to mention the legal consequences and non-compliance issues.
There are several actions that SMEs can take to minimise their exposure to criminality including:
Training employees to identify phishing attempts
Backing up data and keeping it offline
Keeping security patches up to date
Having robust anti-spam processes
Introducing multi-factor authentication here needs read more hear.
