Can this ever happen to me? Am I at risk? A thought provoking question that every SMB business must ask themselves.
A common perception about cybercrime is that it is the work of organised and intelligent, professional criminals out to target wealthy individuals and cashrich companies. So if you’re a small business, you may think you’re not at risk like big enterprises, right? Wrong.
Not any more—today, a cybercriminal could be the next person round the corner as long as they know where to buy an attack toolkit.
SMBs are soft targets for cybercriminals. Limited awareness, time, money and lack of dedicated IT staff have made an SMB more prone to attacks and that too just by anybody who has a simple attack toolkit.
This has attracted traditional criminals who would otherwise lack the technical expertise to get into cybercrime. They really don’t need to know much at all—except where to buy a toolkit. Toolkits allow cyber criminals with limited skills to get into the game of gathering than selling information.
Attackers know that small businesses may have fewer safeguards in place to protect financial transactions and information, so they have become a prime target for these attacks and this only serves to encourage them.
Thus it is very difficult to predict the source of cyber crimes. Since the creation of attack kits, anyone with bad intention and having the required amount of money can buy them and easily steal data from unprotected data bases. Such a person need not necessarily be a computer programmer; even a layman can cause huge damage by just buying the right attack kit.
According to the Attack Toolkits and Malicious Websites Report, Symantec, attack kits are now being used in the majority of malicious Internet attacks that target banking credentials. Attack kits are bundles of malicious code tools offered for a nominal fee, which criminals then use to attack distributed systems around the globe.
An attacker with no expertise in computer programming or hacking can now search and find a criminal who has expertise in the same and offers him a variety of attack kit options for attacking databases. These attack kits are sufficiently advanced to evade detection and this makes it even more dangerous.
Such attack toolkits are increasingly becoming popular and this has encouraged the development of more advanced toolkits. These toolkits can be easily updated on a regular basis which enables them to keep up the attack on new vulnerabilities detected in SMB databases. The rate at which these kits proliferate is alarmingly high.
Cybercrime is getting easier and easier. Attack kits are becoming more accessible and easier to use, drawing traditional criminals into cybercrime. Symantec expects this much larger pool of criminals to lead to an increased number of attacks against SMBs.
The fact that these threats are out there doesn’t mean YOU have to be a victim. Preparation is the first step. Just as you would lock your doors and set your security system at night, you need to take the same precautions to protect the important business information on your servers, laptops, desktops and mobile devices.
There are plenty of technology options that make it easy for you to protect your company and customer information. Some of the common guidelines that SMBs should follow are:
1. Educate yourself and your team to be aware about security, and the latest threats.
2. Protect essential business information as well as other proprietary information—as credit card details, customer data, or employee records.
3. Adopt a healthy and regular backup and recovery plan.
4. Secure email and Web information. The bottom line is that threats to SMBs are real. Reducing costs by not installing data protection measures is no longer an option. Being prepared with such technology, will help you and your customers avoid the stress of losing personal information – especially financial information—to the wrong people.
SMB’s can’t afford to relax on the issue of data protection. Even a single attack from the criminals can cripple businesses and in some cases cause downfall. Customers shall also lose trust in the business. Hence forewarned is forearmed.