Wondering if your business could be an easy target for a cyber attack? The truth is, most small businesses are vulnerable in some way. But certain risk factors make the possibility of a successful hack even more likely.

The Horrors of a Cyber Attack

Have you had your identity stolen or heard the horror stories of someone you know who had their identity stolen? If you have, you can begin to understand the headache involved in getting your money or identity back. You would have to contact your banks, credit card companies, credit bureaus, utility companies and anywhere else that you pay for services and then take a few months to clear up all of the issues.

You won’t be able to open new credit cards or take out a mortgage or an auto loan during that time. Your financial life is put on hold until you go through the miles of red tape necessary to get back to normal.

Now, can you imagine if one of your clients called to let you know that their data breach was traced back to your business? Are you liable or open to litigation? Have you violated some compliance standard such as HIPAA or PCI and are now open to fines?

“My company is too small for hackers to bother with. There are bigger fish in the sea.” might be your stance. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. As a small business, hackers are more likely to be interested in your business and your clients for several cybercriminal reasons.

Cybercriminals love unsuspecting small businesses. And the unfortunate reality is that many small businesses have already been hacked and don’t even know it.

(Find out just how common these cyber attacks are on small businesses in this post)

At CloudNexus, we understand how devastating it can be when a small business has been attacked. We don’t want you to delay implementing protection steps because you think it won’t happen to you.

4 Reasons Your Business is a Prime Target for a Cyber Attack

Let’s talk about four common reasons your small business is an easy target for a cyber attack.

Not Having an IT Budget Line Item

When small businesses come up with their yearly budgets, little to no money is set aside for cybersecurity. Some small businesses don’t think they are large enough to put aside money in the budget. In contrast, others don’t even believe that they would be subject to an attack, so it never crosses their mind to budget money for it. Unfortunately, a minimum of 33% of customers leave when a company has a breach of data. It’s not difficult to understand why.

You are the steward of your client’s data, and you broke their trust.

So, ask yourself: which is more expensive: spending money on preventative measures or recovering revenue with a damaged reputation?

(You’ll also want to check out this post next to learn about stealth viruses and protecting your business from them.)

Not Having An IT Security Policy and Procedure

Cyber attackers understand that large companies have mature cybersecurity programs in place. They know how hard they would have to work to get into their systems.

Unfortunately, hackers know how easy it is to crack small business networks. With no policy or procedure in place, computers go unpatched, firewall subscriptions lapse, security bulletins regarding your wireless access points go unread, backups go untested, communication plans become outdated, the list goes on. But in short, a cyber attack is far more likely.

But you are not alone. You have a day job, building widgets or providing services and technology management is an afterthought.

(Learn more about the benefits of IT managed services in this post.)

Storing Important Data

Hackers know that small businesses keep a lot of essential customer data. This data includes credit card numbers, emails, insurance information, and personal data. What about product designs or patents? Engineering drawings? Sales proposals and bid information? All of this data has value to the right people.

High Returns vs. Low Risk

The amount of risk associated with hacking a small business is minimal compared to the high return of information gained for the hacker.

The fact is those small businesses that are attacked rarely report them. If they do, the hacker is seldom caught. This is because attackers can attack from anywhere in the world. There are also many instances where a small business has already been attacked, and a bot is sitting on a PC, smartphone or server undetected, listening to your network and sending that traffic back “home” to bad-guy HQ.

We encourage every small business to stop what they are doing and contact us today for a FREE pre-cyber security analysis at 502-440-1380. It could be the difference between keeping your business open for years or closing because your current clients no longer trust you.

Did you learn a lot from this post explaining why your business could be an easy target for a cyber attack? Here are three more to read next:

• Ransomware & Small Businesses: Don’t Let Your Business Fall Victim!
• Why IT Managed Services? Six Key Benefits
• 5 Top Cybersecurity Trends of 2021

This post was first published in 2020, but it was updated in 2021 just for you.