Navigating the Top 10 Cybersecurity Concerns for Small and Medium Businesses

Running a small or medium-sized business (SMB) can be extremely challenging. Many difficult decisions need to be made to promote competitiveness, attract new business, and maintain customer satisfaction. In some cases, there may be less of a focus on cybersecurity than warranted by today’s threat landscape.

SMBs need to efficiently allocate their financial resources to address the dangers posed by sophisticated threat actors. Research indicates that the SMBs are taking cybersecurity more seriously and increasing their spending on protective measures. The addition of an extended detection and response (XDR) solution provides a cost-effective method of enhancing cybersecurity.

We are going to look at our top ten cybersecurity concerns for SMBs. It is essential that organizations effectively address these concerns, no matter how difficult it may be. Failure to take the necessary measures to protect the business exposes it to serious risks.

Insufficient Threat Awareness

SMBs may be under the mistaken impression that they are less likely to be the victim of cyberattacks than larger companies. This mindset can result in a false sense of security and less vigilance being devoted to protecting the IT environment. All organizations have data resources that make them attractive targets for threat actors.

SMBs need to stay abreast of trends in the threat landscape and operate under the assumption that they can be attacked at any time. Smaller organizations make attractive targets for threat actors. Over 40% of SMBs face a cyberattack annually and, in many cases, the company is forced to close in the wake of the attack.

Limited Resources and Cybersecurity Skills

Many SMBs operate with limited budgets, hindering their ability to implement robust cybersecurity. Organizations running on a tight budget have to make difficult decisions on where to allocate resources, and security may take a backseat to initiatives designed to grow the company or attract new customers.

A lack of cybersecurity skills can impact an SMB even if they can afford to implement security solutions. Without the proper skillset, security applications may be misconfigured and never provide the expected level of protection.

Data Loss and Breaches

The loss or theft of sensitive or valuable data can be crushing to an SMB. Lost intellectual property can cripple an organization’s ability to compete in the market. If regulated data is involved in a data breach, additional legal and financial penalties can be imposed.

Customers may lose trust in an SMB that does not adequately protect their personal information. The resulting loss of business can be impossible to reverse and lead to long-term damage to the company.

Regulatory Compliance

SMBs that process payment card transactions or operate in the healthcare sector need to enact specific cybersecurity measures to comply with regulatory standards. Regulations such as the European Union’s GDPR must be followed to ensure the privacy and security of personal data. SMBs need to be aware of the specific regulations that affect them when operating in multiple regions.

Maintaining compliance typically entails implementing end-to-end encryption and archiving records utilizing a secure, long-term storage solution. Failure to maintain regulatory compliance can result in financial penalties and a loss of customer confidence. It can be very difficult to rebuild the loss of trust when sensitive customer data is found to be mishandled by an SMB.

Financial Losses

SMBs need to be concerned about the direct financial losses associated with a successful cyber attack. A company can be hurt financially in multiple ways from an attack including:

• Loss of income if the operation of business-critical systems is disrupted;
• Theft of valuable data or intellectual property;
• Fines from regulatory agencies for noncompliance;
• The cost of recovery in the wake of an attack.

Inadequate Employee Training and Awareness

Many cybersecurity incidents occur due to errors made by inadequately trained employees. A simple mistake such as failing to encrypt a file before sending it to a colleague can result in a devastating data breach. Employees must be made aware of what constitutes sensitive information that should never leave the organization.

SMBs need to ensure that employees are trained on cybersecurity best practices and are kept aware of new types of threats to the environment. Training should be an ongoing activity to address evolving threats and risks.

Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

Threat actors use targeted phishing and other types of social engineering attacks for a variety of malicious activities. SMBs need to ensure employees are aware of these kinds of attacks and take the proper defensive precautions. Successful social engineering attacks can harm an SMB in multiple ways including:

• Disclosing login credentials that can be used to launch subsequent attacks;
• Allowing malware to be surreptitiously installed in an IT environment;
• Initiating a data breach by responding to a fraudulent request.

Phishing affects SMBs in virtually all industries with financial institutions being the most targeted type of business. It remains the top method of initiating cyber attacks.

Ransomware

Ransomware should be a concern for all SMBs. Threat actors can take advantage of social engineering attacks to introduce ransomware into the environment. The goal is to encrypt business-critical systems, making them and their data unavailable to the company and its customers. Victims are requested to pay the perpetrators to regain access to their resources or perform a recovery of the affected systems.

SMBs may not have the financial or technical resources required to successfully recover from a ransomware attack. Gartner provides compelling evidence of the growing threat of ransomware to SMBs. They indicate over 90% of attacks are against companies with a valuation of less than $1 billion and over 80% target organizations with less than 1000 employees.

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

APTs pose dangers to any size organization. These types of prolonged attacks gain an initial foothold in an IT environment and search for valuable and exploitable targets. While a typical SMB may not have the same volume of sensitive resources as a larger company, they still have valuable data that needs to be protected from the organized groups behind APTs.

An extended detection and response (XDR) solution can be instrumental in identifying the subtle lateral movements throughout a computing environment that indicate the presence of an APT. SMBs can use this information to remove malicious code or utilities before they can cause damage.

Software Supply Chain Risks

Most companies use software products and services obtained from third-party vendors. Threat actors can exploit vulnerabilities in third-party software to gain entry into an IT environment to launch malware or APTs that threaten an organization’s security.

Security vulnerabilities that affect the software supply chain can also impact the SMBs using these products. An SMB that has outsourced processing to a third party is liable if that entity suffers a data breach involving regulated data.

Conclusion

SMBs need to make the most of their limited resources to protect their IT environments. This means efficiently allocating resources for education, awareness, security controls, data handling policies, and an overall strategy of robust cyber defenses.

Samurai XDR offers SMBs a cost-effective and efficient method of improving cybersecurity and addressing many of their concerns about the safety of their systems and data.

• Samurai’s XDR platform provides SMBs with information about existing and emerging threats by leveraging the threat intelligence available from NTT’s Tier 1 internet backbone. This level of threat intelligence is typically only available to larger corporations.
• The platform consolidates and prioritizes threats and alerts in a unified interface to enhance cybersecurity. This feature is especially useful for SMBs working with limited cybersecurity resources.
• Advanced analytics and machine learning are used to identify suspicious activity to reveal compromised systems that escape detection by traditional methods.
• Samurai XDR can identify the subtle lateral movements of threat actors and APTs as they move through the environment in search of valuable targets.
• Samurai employs a team of threat research experts who update the platform to keep up with evolving and emerging threats to an SMB's IT environment.

Get in touch and learn how our new Starter Plan can help enhance the cybersecurity of your small business and keep your valuable information safe.