Cyber-Security & Small Business Survival
Posted on January 31, 2017 in Uncategorized
Kenneally Technology Services was recently requested to provide their expertise to a national cybersecurity organization and their online publication. Here is an excerpt with a link to the full article if you wish to continue reading:
The “little guy mentality” can no longer be relied upon to protect and safeguard your systems in today’s environment.
Much attention has been paid to major data breaches that have affected large corporations, United States government agencies, not-for-profits and political organizations. This attention has resulted in the allocation of significant resources, both monetary and intellectual, to shore up business and government defenses against different types of cyber threats. In fact, an entire educational industry has emerged as high schools and universities now offer courses and majors for a new generation of cyber-warriors.
That is all well, good and necessary given cyber’s national security and financial implications, but it fails to address the core of the American economy. Tens of thousands of small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) do not have an existing or adequate cybersecurity budget. Perhaps worse, these organizations often feel that due to the small size of their business they will not be the targets of a cyber-attack?
This perception is simply not correct. Last summer, the FBI reported that as of late 2013 (the latest data available), more than 7,000 U.S. companies, of all sizes, were victims of phishing scams, with losses exceeding $740 million. Symantec Corporation has observed a steady increase in attacks targeting businesses with less than 250 employees, with 43 percent of all attacks targeted at small businesses in 2015, proving that companies of all sizes are targeted…