Be Cognizant About SMB’s Security Threat

A threat that is currently agitating small & mid-size businesses is ‘Security threat’ which is evolving quickly, making it strenuous for them. Perceiving the threats of the past and the ones we foresee in the future, we have understood that while malware can be damaging to businesses, so can human decisions.

This makes it mandatory for small & mid-size business owners consider the prose and cons of possible threats with their employees and contribute the basic IT guidelines to them, but more importantly, to implement a strong security solution that holds up dangers before they become a real threat.

Social Engineering : Hackers choice

The human nature of making mistakes, is well versed by hackers, so they have turned to social engineering. Social engineering is a ploy that tricks people into revealing their personal information, like log in details, or into performing actions, like downloading malware disguised as an attachment or link. Not having anti-phishing protection, will be a big mistake, because phishing emails are a popular form of social engineering that can easily creep their way into your employees’ inboxes, impersonate themselves as yet another offer, promotion, or even a customer. Phishing campaigns come in many forms, either they can use scare tactics to make people believe they are in trouble or that they have won a prize.

Falling for such phishing scams can have catastrophic effects on businesses. Because they don’t just steal personal information, but also attack Points of Sale (PoS) systems to steal customers’ financial information, in this way, not only affecting the business itself, but its clients as well.

Dearth Of Security Awareness: Invitation To The Hackers

Negligence towards proper security precautions, like choosing weak passwords or ignoring security updates, is another human defect cyber criminals like to abuse to access accounts & networks. To access the system, hackers can enter common or weak passwords or simply look up the hardware’s default administrative log in credentials.
Not updating your software is a clear gateway for hackers, leaving vulnerabilities & loopholes wide open for them to take an advantage of. Likewise, while on a business trip, connecting to public & open Wi-Fi connections is like giving hackers a personal invitation to snoop around your business.

With India, SMB’s Are Getting Technology Ready And The Hackers getting Ready Too

Zinnov, Indian consulting firm, stated that, 20 % of India’s 50 million small & mid-size businesses are technologically ready. On the other hand, taking note of that cyber criminals may have been preparing plans at this very moment, which is exactly what you should do, too.

What should be your step now, is to set up basic security guidelines for your employees, not just that, teach them about possible threats and make sure they understand how imperative their role plays in securing your business. By acquiring simple ways like, choosing strong passwords for their devices & accounts, to keep their software updated, and to use a VPN when connecting to unsecure wireless Networks.

But only relying on your employees thoroughly is not a good thing. Because they are humans and humans do make mistakes sometimes. So you are supposed to have a proper business security solution. Small to mid-size businesses can look for security solutions that include anti-phishing, firewall to control network traffic, & server-side protection. If your employees need to travel often, it is important to implement a VPN solution on their laptop, smartphone & tablet.

Let it be a small business or a very huge, there are two very essential things that needs to be undertaken, first is awareness & second is the right security technology.