43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves
Businesses are suffering from these attacks, and they suffered almost $200,000 on average, and many businesses had to shut themselves down. Small businesses are falling prey to these targets than larger ones, and more than 50% of all small businesses suffered a breach in the previous year. Moreover, 4 out of every 10 had to suffer multiple incidents, according to the report by Hiscox. On a global scale, these cyberattacks cost enterprises approximately $5.2 trillion within the last five years.
Digital transformation and advancement has not only paved the way for businesses evolvement but, also for hackers to attack the systems using innovative methods. Today’s IT systems and infrastructures are more sophisticated than ever before and the virtual ground for safeguarding has also augmented significantly. Cybercriminals can cause damage to any layer of the systems by launching thousands of digital attacks. According to Justin Fier, director of cyberintelligence and analytics at cyberdefense firm Darktrace, “The latest cyberattacks speedily exploit vulnerabilities in computer networks like human immune systems, changing thousands of times per second and can overtake even major networks in an hour and a half.” Each year, thousands of small companies are victims of phishing, malware, hacking, and other types of cyberattacks.
2019 Cyber Attacks in Small Business and their statistics
Cyberattacks that hit small businesses are proven to be originated much from outsiders than insiders. 69% of the attacks were originated by outsiders, and 31% were originated by organized criminal groups. State actors were also involved in this crime, and it turned out that 23% of the breaches were started from their side. Internal offenders involved themselves in 34% of the incidents. And 2% of those proved to be partners in the firm. While 5% were identified as multiple parties.
Types of Attacks
According to Cisco, the most generic forms of cyberattacks against businesses are malware, phishing, denial of service attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, SQL injections, and zero-day exploits. In a man-in-the-middle attack, a criminal inserts himself between two parties conducting a transaction so he can steal data. An SQL injection involves malicious code that’s installed in an SQL server.
Some low-key strategies to contain these attacks
- Make a backup of your sensitive data and always have duplicate copies of the documents and files that can be easily restored in the case of any emergency
- Advanced and updated antivirus, firewall, and modern encryption tools can also be useful to safeguard incoming network or denial-of-service attacks.
- All the devices connected to the system and network must be scanned often and avoid using removable media at the workplace.
- A small number of workers should have access to confidential files, folders, and documents that are required to perform routine on-the-job tasks
- Regular and updated training sessions must be held every 3-6 months so that employees must be aware of the upcoming threats and trends in cybercrime.
- Implement multifactor authentication (requiring multiple checks and approvals) before authorizing any major, uncommon, irregular, or allegedly time-sensitive requests.
- Penetration and vulnerability testing with risk assessment practices must be done on computer networks and applications to locate possible fragile points.
- Utilize and implement artificially-intelligent cyber analytics tools that can predict any malicious activity in networks, user accounts, and applications and immobilize suspicious activities before they spread.
Best Practices Recommendations from NetworkFort
NetworkFort provides several services and tools to contain these cyberattacks, not only for larger businesses but also for smaller ones as small businesses are more at stake. Network’s tool NetworkFort delivers comprehensive data protection solutions that are easier to deploy and simpler to manage. It allows your teams to work remotely on any device using different platforms. With NetworkFort integration, your data is always encrypted even on cloud-based storage applications. NetworkFort Identifies data theft by implementing AI and detects hidden attacks on crucial data at an early stage with the help of predictive behavioral analytics and machine learning algorithms.
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