Blog

Small businesses are at considerable risk of cyberattack. With fewer staff resources available to maintain and monitor networks and fewer defenses in place, small businesses are an attractive target for hackers and other criminals.

Creating a business continuity plan is one of the most important things a company can do.

Each year, around 61% of small businesses become the victims of a malware attack. While many small businesses may think no one would ever come after them because of their size, know that over half of the total global attacks hit small businesses and, for thieves, getting access to your systems is becoming increasingly lucrative.

Many companies are finally taking cybersecurity seriously and have implemented programs to meet their organization’s specific needs. Having a program in place, however, is only the first step. Measuring the effectiveness of a cybersecurity plan is equally important. There are several steps a company should take to adequately measure the effectiveness of their plan.

Ransomware. Ransomware. You have heard the word and know it involves a cyberattack. You assume from news reports that it only happens to large companies like Target, Equifax, and Marriott Hotels for example, and that cybercriminals will not want to bother with your small or medium-sized business (SMB). Unfortunately, that assumption is wrong.

Several events in 2018 brought cybersecurity to the forefront of public consciousness, as major sectors– from financial institutions to Facebook– were affected by cybercrime. According to Forbes, 34 percent of US consumers had their personal information compromised in 2018. Security experts and business leaders are constantly looking for ways to keep two steps ahead of hackers. As we ring in the new year, predictions for 2019 are a popular topic. Here is what’s anticipated this year in the cybersecurity realm.

There was something of a cultural shift in the technology sector during 2018 that will undoubtedly impact 2019. Up until last year, cybersecurity issues seemed to predominately plague significant corporations and organizations. The Democratic National Committee hack fallout and Russian bots on Facebook were coupled with big-time breaches at Equifax and others that garnered headlines. Even the recent reports coming out of U.S. intelligence agencies point to enemy states such as China and Iran stealing American intellectual property.

Users around the world have been receiving bitcoin extortion emails for a long time, one of the most notorious being a “sextortion” threat to show a computer-eye view of you watching adult videos to the world. The latest threat is more alarming: the sender claims to have a bomb planted at the recipient’s business. Financial institutions in New York began receiving bomb threat emails demanding payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin in early December.

Hackers Know How to Steal Money Anonymously

In late 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a stark warning about a massive data breach at a Marriott chain that exposed the records of 500 million people.