Last Updated on December 15, 2018 by Jessica Adams
Over 40% of all cyber attacks target primarily small businesses. Contrary to popular belief, hackers do not focus all their efforts on large corporations. They prefer to attack smaller businesses which are more likely to be manageable targets, thus, more vulnerable to crime.
65% of small business in the US don’t know how to respond to a cybersecurity crisis, which can consequently lead to a dramatic ripple effect. Unfortunately, preparing a response strategy for a data breach is not going to protect your small business from a potential attack.
In the case of prevention, your best course of action is to focus on what makes your company more vulnerable to crime, both online and off. Below are a few surprising points that make small businesses more vulnerable to crime.
Surprising Ways That
Small Businesses Are
Vulnerable To Crime
Lack Of Security Awareness
The number one reason small businesses tend to be easy targets for hackers is that they usually tend to lack essential security awareness. These days, it’s pretty standard to know a thing or two about basic security protocol.
For instance, we use apps that store all of our passwords on a secured cloud. Unfortunately, too many companies continue to use unsecured facilities for fundamental processes. So when that company is infiltrated, your data is too, right along with them.
Putting preventive measures into place is the best way that you help yourself and your business from cyber attacks. One great way of doing this is by creating a cyber vigilance policy to encourage your staff to act accordingly with whatever security risk you may be facing.
Not Knowing the Business Laws in Your State or Province
A successful business structure relies on having an appropriate understanding of its own legal structure. Knowing how to prepare an effective forecast is just one example of this.
By knowing the laws in your state, you’ll better understand exactly how to protect your business from hackers. But just how far can you go to protect your business on your own, before needing to alert the authorities?
If you do run into any issues, you can protect your company from legal backlash by relying on effective business packages such as Go Legal Yourself.
Underestimating the Importance of Patents
Imagine coming up with a brilliant idea, only to see it end up actualized by someone else. In the history of creative ideas and great products, many have been accused of stealing their best-selling ideas from others. For example, Lizzie Magie is credited for inventing the world’s most famous board game, Monopoly.
At the time, Magie didn’t realize that she would need to patent her idea in order to truly own it. The game’s actual concept was patented 30 years later and it wasn’t by Magie. Sadly, this left poor Magie without any money from her invention! If you don’t want to get ripped off for your business idea you need to patent it on day one.
Many small businesses forget to protect their processes, devices, and designs. Next thing you know, you’re on a website and an ad for your custom designed fonts or graphics pops up! And there’s literally nothing you can do about it at that point.
Trying to Keep Costs Down
Small businesses tend to be more frugal than the larger corporations. Fortunately, there are a lot of great low-cost methods to design your website and market your business. Since small businesses are usually cash-flow poor, they’re often persuaded into buying cheap web designs online.
Unfortunately, a standard web design and development package is unlikely to bring high-quality rankings. Digital security, and hosting, can make you vulnerable to web hackers. Additionally,
But you should always make sure that you’re getting a discount from a larger, well-known business that you can trust. A common way for hackers to infiltrate one’s network is by getting onto it through a template the victim uses.
Templates are an easy and ideal target for hackers. Thousands of people use the same template files that so many others used before them, every single day. Hackers can detect the vulnerabilities of a particular, thereby gaining access to every site that has (and will again) used the same template.
Edited by Jessica Rose Adams
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