Small Businesses: Seize the Opportunity to Enhance Your Cybersecurity
As a small business owner, you might think cybercriminals only target large corporations. However, recent research reveals that nearly 43% of all cyberattacks now focus on small businesses. Rather than viewing this as a threat, consider it an opportunity to strengthen your cybersecurity posture and enable your business to thrive in the digital landscape.
Why Small Businesses are Targets:
Small businesses often possess valuable data,
such as customer information and financial records. Cybercriminals recognise
that smaller companies may have fewer resources dedicated to security, making
them attractive targets. Additionally, compromising a small business can
sometimes provide a gateway into larger companies they supply.
The Impact of Cyber Crime on Australian SMEs:
The ACSC receives approximately 144 reports of cybercrime daily, equating to one report every 10 minutes. Between July 2021 and June 2022, they responded to 1,100 cybersecurity incidents, with the severity of these incidents increasing. The top five threats during this period were phishing attacks, ransomware, malware, cyber espionage, and vulnerabilities in web applications.
The Financial Burden:
SMEs often need more resources for cybersecurity, with nearly half spending less than $500 annually. However, the cost of a cyber-attack can be substantial. The 2022 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report noted that the average price of a data breach was USD 4.35 million, and USD 4.54 million for a ransomware attack (excluding the ransom). Investing in proactive cybersecurity measures is critical to minimise these risks and potential costs.
- Growing regulatory scrutiny: The Australian Government is overhauling privacy legislation, potentially removing exemptions for SMEs under the Privacy Act. Ensure your business is prepared for these changes.
- Business email compromise and social engineering threats: Always verify requests for supplier or bank details changes through separate channels.
- Continued ransomware threat: Ransomware remains a severe threat to SMEs, with potential financial, reputational, and operational impacts. Develop an incident response plan to mitigate these risks.
- The Importance of Cyber Insurance: Cyber insurance can be a valuable risk transfer tool, helping protect your business’s reputation and finances in a cyber-attack. It can provide access to incident response services, reimbursement of ransom payments (where legal), coverage for business interruption, and assistance with regulatory compliance. By taking steps to implement modern and secure
practices in your business, technology becomes your competitive advantage, a
unique identifier. Modern cybersecurity systems not only secure your business, but
enable oversight, opportunities for automation and give access to AI empowered
opportunities.
Empowering Your Business through Cybersecurity:
By taking steps to implement modern and secure practices in your business, technology becomes your competitive advantage, a unique identifier. Modern cybersecurity systems not only secure your business, but enable oversight, opportunities for automation and access to AI empowered opportunities.
Trends to Watch in 2024:
- Affordable tools that educate employees on best practices like identifying phishing emails and maintaining password security.
- Enterprise security solutions that cater to SMBs Â
- The rise of Goverancne, risk and compliance tools that give SMBs insight into their own technology compliance and their provider.
- People (and businesses) that said cloud makes you secure are taught a very unfortunate lesson.
