The Top 6 Things You Need to Know About Cybersecurity as a Small Business Leader

In fact, they know that small businesses are much less likely to have sufficient cybersecurity measures in place, making them the path of least resistance and a much easier target.

58% of security breaches happen to small businesses, and many don't have the resources to survive the financial and reputational damage a breach may cause. Hackers continuously monitor the entire market for areas of vulnerabilities and often target smaller companies precisely because they know those businesses have underinvested in cybersecurity.

It’s also worth considering that cybercriminals will bring the same level of sophistication to attacking an SMB company as they do a large Fortune 500 enterprise — and because the first phase of the hacking process is automated, they will come at your company just as hard.

Cybercriminals are highly motivated because they know there is a lot of money to be made at your expense. It used to be that only attackers with advanced cybersecurity skills could pose a threat to your business. These days, all of the building blocks of a successful attack can be purchased online just about as easily as you can order dinner.

Even amateur threat actors can turn to a growing cybercrime supply chain to obtain attack kits, phishing-as-a-service, stolen credentials, customized “lead generation” lists of potential victims, and more. Cybercriminals have even created their own affiliate programs, providing all of the elements of a successful attack in exchange for a percentage of stolen money.

All of this means that it now takes very little skill to pull off a cyberattack successfully. Taking cues from the gig economy, the most skilled threat actors simply provide an attack-in-a-box and then watch profits pour in while aspiring cybercriminals assume most of the risk.

The cybercrime “gig economy” has experienced its largest growth in the area of ransomware attacks. Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) is regarded as one of the most pressing threats to business leaders today. Thousands of companies have fallen prey to this kind of attack. For example, Costa Rica declared a national emergency in May 2022 after its government organizations were hit with a widespread ransomware campaign.

A ransomware attack involves an attacker deploying malware that encrypts and steals your corporate data, holding it ransom for whatever sum of money the attacker demands. The average ransom demand climbed to over $200,000 in 2021 — not a bad return on investment for ransomware kits that can be purchased for less than $100.

Most business leaders have a talent for being able to identify threats to their businesses long before the danger is imminent. Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case for ransomware attacks. According to data collected by Microsoft, nearly 97% of all successful ransomware attacks can infiltrate their target in under four hours. And, of course, cyberattacks aren’t constrained to traditional business hours.

As a results of the Great Resignation, recruiting and retaining IT talent just got significantly harder. In an already competitive space this is no small challenge.

“With the hiring freezes of 2020, followed by the widespread implementation of technology demanded by digital transformation, this 2021 surge in Canadian tech jobs has led to unparalleled demand and competition for talent both on and off the market.”– Tech Salary Guide 2022

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, we wrote an entire blog post on this subject: CLICK HERE.