Why Small Businesses Need to Think Big When it Comes to Network Security

There are benefits to being a small business. Being small provides all sorts of flexibility, including the ability to make decisions quickly and without having to go through so many hoops. Plus, you have a smaller workforce, which makes for a more personal experience. However, this also leads to a rather unfortunate side-effect of believing that you’re immune to being hacked.

You might be surprised by the reason, and it’s the fact that hackers quite simply don’t care what the size of your company is. They don’t care which industry you’re in or what you do. Regardless of whether or not you’re a startup or a major service provider for your region, your business holds information that hackers will find valuable. This is what hackers care about most--how much value you can provide them with, and you can be sure that it’s a dangerous gambit to not prepare for the worst.

But what data do you have that could be so valuable to hackers? Information that’s managed by human resources, like Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, are all great ways to either steal an identity or attempt targeted spear-phishing attacks. Furthermore, the finance department might have access to payment information for both your business and your clients, which could lead to a major problem should this information get out of your grasp.

Still, it’s worth mentioning that hackers can use plenty of other tactics at their disposal to find a way into your network, be it through viruses, malware, spyware, or otherwise. They probably won’t target specific data, and in most cases, it’s not even your particular business they’re after. Often times, these types of scams are designed to be one-size-fits-all in nature, and the spam message that you see in your inbox was probably sent out to a bunch of other businesses, too.

Think of it like a fisherman; they don’t necessary know what they’re going to catch, but they’ll do whatever it takes to catch at least something. In this case, it’s a literal phishing email, which convinces the user to click on a link, download an infected attachment, or navigate to a malicious website. It will be rare that your business experiences a legitimate, direct hack tailored to infiltrate your specific network.

Thanks to this oversight, it’s possible for your business to cover plenty of ground in the cybersecurity department by following a few easy steps. The first is that you implement a plethora of proactive security measures that are designed to keep issues from both happening in the first place, and from escalating into major problems. This includes firewalls, spam blocking, and content filtering to minimize exposure to threats and to keep them out of your network, and an antivirus solution just in case things go south.

You might be a smaller target, but you’re still a target nonetheless. Be sure that your small business implements these security solutions, or you could be putting your entire network at risk. Managed IT Force can help you implement enterprise-level security measures, like our Unified Threat Management solution, that can handle all of the above threats and then some. To learn more, reach out to us at 724-473-3950.