Cyber Security: Essential In Today’s Business World

Cybercrime: A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

It’s not just that cybercrime is an international industry worth many billions on an annual basis, and increasing in its cumulative economic presence on a yearly basis. Certainly that’s a very big deal, but it’s only one portion of the picture, because there is more than one type of cybercrime. There’s identity theft, file ransoming, phishing and much more.

No, the extent and degree of cybercrime is only one aspect of something even more surprising, and that is that small to medium sized businesses are at greater risk of hacking. There are a few reasons for this, chief among them that cybercriminals find they can profit more substantively from such targets.

A Realistic Scenario

Firstly, a small to medium-sized business is less likely to expect that they will be the victim of a cybercrime. Why would some hacker go after Bob’s Auto Magazine in Newton, Iowa? It doesn’t make sense; Bob’s Auto Magazine’s best year was only about $200,000; and he’s only got two full-time employees. But because he’s so small, Bob has next to no security.

He’s got a network of five computers in an office rented downtown. There are no servers, these computers are private desktops which are networked together. They’re only protected by basic password provisions, and that’s it. Basically: they’re ripe for the plucking from a hacker’s perspective.

Bob’s business gets targeted, and ransomware is aimed at his business, as well as a hundred others in the local area with similar security holes. When someone’s sending out malware of the ransom variety, they usually cast the net wide to catch as many unsuspecting victims as possible. So the hackers send an e-mail from a “prospective client” with pictures of an auto.

The pictures are meant to be featured in the monthly magazine. Bob clicks on them, and accidentally downloads ransomware onto his computer which holds his files hostage against a sum of $25k. The files will be deleted in 24 hours if he doesn’t comply. Though paying that sum will lose him 1/8th of his best year’s profit, not paying it will lose him many clients.

Bob is forced to pay out of necessity, and so are most small to medium sized businesses. That is on top of an increased likelihood for lax security in digital operations. Hackers are making billions yearly because they’ve got their choice of monetary cows to milk with ransomware and phishing scams. It’s almost child’s play, when you get down to it.

Get Protection Across The Board

Whether you’re a small business, a medium-sized business, or some large operation, you need to have security measures requisite to recovering your operations in the event a cyber criminal targets your business. Roughly fifty percent of small businesses are targeted by cyber crime on an annual basis; so hoping to slip by unnoticed is literally a gamble.

When you are finally on the hunt for protection solutions, you want them to cover several primary areas of your business. According to CBISecure.com, one of the most reliable cyber security services Detroit can offer, exactly the agencies such as these represent a prime way of “protecting your data, reputation, and brand.”

Data protection is often accomplished through backup solutions facilitated through the cloud. Your information can be automatically and continuously backed up in this way. Meanwhile, if you don’t have protection, your reputation suffers as clients are afraid hackers may obtain their information from you. This additionally damages your brand, as it’s seen as unreliable.

But if you can secure the right kind of digital protection, you can protect all three of these areas substantively and cost-effectively. Today’s cybercrime atmosphere predicates pursuit of such protection proactively. If you haven’t looked into cybercrime prevention measures yet, do so.