3 Ways Small Businesses Can Make Big Strides in Cybersecurity

• By admin
• 2 Comment

For small businesses, a cyberattack can have big consequences. These three tips can help you defend your organization against modern threats.

Every business needs technology to grow and succeed, not all businesses have the skills and resources they need to protect their environments, their data and their customers from today’s security threats. Small businesses in particular are at risk as cybercriminals realize both the potential value of the data they have — and how vulnerable they can be to cyberattacks.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports, 60% of small businesses say cybersecurity threats — including phishing, malware and ransomware — are a top concern. Many organizations don’t feel fully prepared to face them: 50% feel “somewhat prepared” and only 23% consider themselves “very prepared,” the data shows.

small business customers echo these concerns. An April 2024 TechValidate survey of CrowdStrike Falcon Go customers revealed 90% would be negatively affected by a cyberattack. Their biggest concerns related to cyberattacks include customer data theft (33%), loss in business productivity (31%) and financial loss due to ransomware (19%). Customers also reported a cyberattack would have significant impacts on their business operations: 33% said they would “likely” or “definitely” go out of business if they suffered a breach, and 21% said they would lose customers.

you aren’t taking steps to strengthen your small business’ cybersecurity posture, now is the time to start. CrowdStrike is here to help protect your small business from advanced adversaries. We’re sharing these tips to help small business owners and employees protect themselves from disruptive and destructive threats.

Know you’re a potential target:

Media tends to focus on high-profile breaches affecting large enterprises, reinforcing the belief that threat actors primarily target major companies. This is a dangerous assumption for small businesses, which possess many resources adversaries consider valuable: money, customer data, intellectual property (IP) and in some cases, access to bigger victims. A small business can be used as a vector to attack a larger parent organization or the supply chain of a bigger target.

Think outside the box:

out-of-the-box cybersecurity solution may not check the boxes you need it to check. Today’s small businesses must have a range of threats on their radar and invest in a security tool built to face them. An antivirus tool purchased years ago, or the security controls built into your operating system, aren’t equipped to face the ransomware attacks of today.

It’s okay to call for help:

cybersecurity doesn’t have to be hard. A small business needs an affordably priced solution that can be easily used by non-technical employees to protect against common threats including ransomware, data theft and phishing. If a cyberattack strikes, they need someone they can call to help them navigate the incident response process.