5 reasons why hackers like to target small businesses

The hacker normally has a specific cause for targeting a business. This is commonly performed to steal information for later use, such as identity theft or criminal behavior. Some hackers, on the other hand, wish to steal a company’s secret information and sell it for a profit or hold the owner for ransom.

Since the majority of the news that makes the rounds in the media is about large-scale failures, you’re not the only one thinking that your small business will fly under the radar of a hacker.  

And, sadly, you’re putting yourself at risk as hackers often target small business.

Nearly half of small businesses that are harmed by a cyber-assault collapse within six months. Percentage of cyber-attacks on small businesses is around 43%. Small and medium businesses lose over $2.2 million a year due to cybercrime. The figure speaks for itself.

But what reasons drive cybercriminals to these companies? Here are five of them:

Small businesses are easy targets for cybercriminals:

Smaller businesses sometimes lack the resources and knowledge to protect their systems, which can be exploited by hackers. When the pandemic hit, business activities were already rapidly taking place online. Hackers have taken full advantage as transactions, networking, and data storage have shifted even further into the cyber domain.

It is now up to the business to respond appropriately. At the absolute least, every small business should look for a good cybersecurity solution. If you don’t have one, you’re requesting someone to take your data and hold it for ransom.

You must defend your business, whether through cloud-based security, or firewall protection.

Small businesses are more prone to social engineering:

The act of influencing others into doing things like sharing personal information or transferring money is known as social engineering. Small businesses are more vulnerable to this threat for several factors: they tend to have lower basic security, such as two-factor authentication; they don’t always understand the risk or offer training; they frequently come across a lot of third-party partners to operate which is the primary cause of 41% of data theft; and they kind of always share payments via online money transfer.

Small businesses have unskilled employees:

This is likely the weakest and underestimated aspect of a company’s operations. Expert hackers exploiting advanced cybersecurity were not responsible for some of the greatest cyberattacks we’ve ever seen. Employees were duped into handing out sensitive data by cyber-attackers.

All staff should be taught how to recognize social engineering. Even though there are typically clear signals of a hacking attempt, many people aren’t aware of them. A little learning can go a long way in protecting your company.

Small businesses often consider the ransom amount:

For a small company, the expense of being hacked usually exceeds any money stolen from their bank accounts. Then there is the expense of hiring experts to investigate the cyber-attack, as well as the cost of the operational delay.

Therefore, when faced with the decision of paying a ransom in order to come back up quickly or suffering a long time of potentially damaging downtime, small businesses frequently believe they have no choice except to pay these charges.

Small businesses provide a bridge to larger businesses:

Many small businesses are electronically linked to the IT networks of a variety of larger, industry partners. As a result, when hackers are attempting to attack these big, more cyber-protected corporations, they are rapidly turning to their small suppliers to see if they provide a less protected entry point. Furthermore, most of these IT connections are observable in publicly accessible data.

Hackers get the data from the internet and in order to cyber-attack the large organization they cyber-attack a small business and get the data needed for a bigger attack.

It’s usual to discuss development, marketing goals, and other topics when you operate a small business. However, data breaches and cyber-attacks are something that far too many small business owners neglect. Since small businesses are targeted by hackers, they must learn and implement methods to gain protection from cyber-attacks.