When you own a small business it can be difficult to make a decision on where to invest your capital, given that it is usually pretty sparse. In most cases we identify areas to invest in which will give us a solid and tangible return on our investment. In the case of cybersecurity however, many business owners feel that this is not worth their money, mainly because they cannot directly see the benefit. Cybersecurity however is rather like insurance, you only get the benefit from it when something bad happens, or in this case, when something bad doesn’t happen. Security is difficult to measure in terms of its ROI, but in the case of cybersecurity the stakes are high and an attack will cost you big time.
To help us find out more about why small businesses are so at risk from cyber criminals, we spoke to cybersecurity expert Bharat Bhise HNA to discover more.
Low Hanging Fruit
There is a school of thought amongst many business owners that the hackers are going to be out for the big boys in business, who can offer much more plunder. History has shown us however that this just isn’t the case. If you think about a petty thief, which would they rather do, break into a fine art museum and steal a masterpiece, or grab what they can from someone’s pockets when they bump into them? The treasure may be better from the museum, but the risk, effort and difficulty involved almost makes it worthless, and the same goes for cybercriminals. You small business still offers value, only without the weight of risk.
Older Systems, Lack of Investment
Another reason why small businesses are more at risk from a cyber attack is because they know that most small businesses don’t have the money to constantly invest in new software and systems, making them very easy to break into. They also assume that many small business owners haven’t invested a single cent into their cybersecurity, which gives them the opportunity to go to town on your systems and your software, easily finding and obtaining personal details and all manner of information which you may have stored there.
Getting Away With It
If a big company is hacked then they instantly put their team of professionals into action, they will both fix the issue which has caused this and they will also search for footprints to try and find the culprit, they are also going to be supported by law enforcement in doing this. If a small business is hacked however, there is far less chance of getting caught, to begin with the small business will not have the funds to launch a mass repair mission and they certainly won’t have the resources to try and catch the culprit. Law enforcement will also be significantly less interested in a small business being hacked, than if a huge corporation is attacked.
If you run a small business, tighten up that cybersecurity.
