99% of the country’s business population is made up of small businesses. There were over five million small businesses in legal operation in the UK in 2022, of which over one million had staff and over four million were sole traders. Half of those businesses suffered from at least one cyberattack.
It’s all it takes for a cyberattack to cripple or bankrupt many small UK businesses.
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There are cyber threats to protect against in the future.
There are cyber security threats to protect against in the year 2023.
There are a number of reasons why small businesses are targeted. They don’t have the budget to deploy the same sort of high-tech cybersolutions that enterprise-level businesses do, and so are often seen as “low-hanging fruit” for criminals.
There are paths that lead to protection.
There are two main ways that businesses can protect themselves from cyberattacks.
It’s an internal affair.
The first way businesses protect themselves from the cyberthreats that exist to ruin both their day and their business is the internal method, where there are enough resources of both time, money and people to set up an internal team dedicated to monitoring activity on the web and email.
This is a strategy most pursued by enterprise-level businesses, which can afford to take cybersecurity as seriously as it needs to be, and keep the process and reporting internal.
There is an external element.
The external option is more useful for businesses that don’t have the resources to deal with their own cybersecurity profile. Using managed service providers to deliver on the necessary cybersecurity functions is a way that many SMBs have found of giving themselves some armor against the many threats that try to compromise them.
For small businesses, the option to contract with a cybersecurity managed service provider is available, where for a regular fee, they can leave their cybersecurity to their provider.
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Part 1 of the cybersecurity challenge for MSPs.
The cyber security challenge formsps helping-smbs part 1 is available on techhq.com.
While no system is guaranteed to be perfect, cybersecurity managed service providers are a growing market because of their relative convenience, and because in the absence of enterprise-level resources, they are able to check a box on a cyberinsurance form to attest that they are protected.
The third option is to not do anything about cybersecurity because small businesses aren’t a lot of money for cyberattackers and everything will be fine. This is also known as the “walking naked in a thunderstorm and hoping not to get wet” cybersecurity strategy, because it is characterized by magical thinking, ignores verifiable fact and past experience, and is nobody’s fault but your own when you come home soaked to the bone and die of hypothermia It is often the way sole traders are forced by the small nature of their operations to respond to cyberattacks.
Small businesses in the UK are at risk of cyberattacks.
What are the main threats small UK businesses need to look out for?
There are five main issues, and their profiles can sometimes blur and overlap.
There is a type of computer software that is Malware.
A piece of malicious code can get into your computer or system. The Trojan horse, the virus, and the worm are some of the different types of malicious software.
Viruses are more versatile and can get into your system through downloads or even visiting particular websites, and worms tend to be more specific in the nature of their danger, attacking particular programs
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Email scam have changed. Stay ahead of the game with a Cybersecurity Checklist.
There is a list of email security checklists on techhq.com.
If you get asked by email or a pop-up to click on a link to open an attachment or visit a website from an unknown source, the chances are high that it contains some type of malicious software that is activated by the click of a link. Don’t trust those links if you double-check them.
Microsoft has recently strengthened the strictures on sending files with macros in, because they were being used to hide the fact that they were being used to deliver malicious software. ZIP folders, which are often used to send large files by email, are becoming more popular as a way of sending malicious software to your system.
They have Viruses.
Viruses are so prevalent that they earn their own classification. Whether it’s to wipe data, send data to the hacker, or otherwise incapacitate a system, Viruses will have a specific function. Viruses can be introduced to a system in many ways, including a clicked link, a downloaded and opened file, and a visited webpage. While affordable anti-viruses software shouldn’t break the bank of most UK small businesses, they work better in addition to a thorough awareness of cybersecurity and how not to let viruses past your personal defences in the first place.
It is a form of extortion.
As far as enterprise-sized businesses are concerned, Ransomware is the biggest threat, but there is every indication that it is being used to attack small businesses more often. A hacker can either steal your data and hold it for a fee or lock you out of critical parts of your system.
If you pay, you will only get the data back if you do not. If you pay, you don’t have a guarantee that you’ll get your data or access back, or that you’ll get the only copy of it, meaning the hackers can potentially double their money by selling off your confidential data to the highest bidder.
While this has traditionally been more of an enterprise problem, due to the potential for a quick, heftyPayout, recent analysis by threat experts claims that from 2023 onward, attackers will be focusing much more on the small and medium-sized business.
If you have a cybersecurity budget, the fact that there is likely to be more of it aimed at UK small businesses in 2023 is worth looking into.
Phishing is a scam.
Phishing is the practice of sending emails, text messages or social media messages that look legitimate, in a way that makes you share your login details, account details, or other vital information that can be used to compromise a system. There is an email that says there is a problem with an invoice and a request to send payment information. It is unlikely that anything will be left in the account when you call the bank.
The practice of Business Email Compromise is an outgrowth of phish. cyberattackers use social media to learn your organization’s structure and business relationships, then send emails or texts from spoof accounts pretending to be senior in the business or an external contractor, using harvested details and the social engineering of urgency
Business email compromise is expected to be on the rise among UK small businesses.
Password cracking.
Password hacking is one of the oldest tricks in the book, because passwords exist to protect systems from everyone but the password owner, so getting the password allows hackers to pretend to be you, and to stroll past all your safeguards with an airy wave and an “open sesame.”
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The Holiday Inn has a cyber attack on it.
The holiday Inn cyber attack teaches security lessons.
The Holiday Inn chain’s owner, the International Hotel Group, recently suffered an attack because its central password was ridiculously weak. The majority of people use a single password for everything. Being one of the 59% puts your whole business on the line every day, and is a welcome mat for hackers.
As a small UK business, what do you do to improve your cybersecurity?
There are things you can do to make your business less likely to be a victim of cyberthreats.
Have a strategy for protecting yourself from cyberattacks.
This includes knowing about the threats that are out there and how to avoid falling into their traps – not clicking on suspect links, checking the real sender address of emails by hovering your mouse over the sender field, and checking independently whether there are issues. It also includes sharing the strategy with any and all staff in the business, and passing on the ways in which a moment’s reflection when faced with possible cyberthreats can save the company from being compromised
It’s a good idea to use a well-known antivirus program.
There are a lot of software packages that can be used for security. Spending money on enough licenses for every piece of technology will help the company close as many doors as possible.
You can use a password manager.
These tools allow you to create individual, hard-to-crack passwords and overcome the fact that such passwords are hard to remember by virtue of holding them all in one place with one master password, which should also be hard to crack. Passwords should be at least 8 characters long with multiple upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. Password managers like Dashlane and LastPass can help you avoid password hacking.
An MFA vendor can be used to double-down on security.
Multi-factor authentication is a system of security that usually involves a randomly generated code that is sent to your phone as a way of making it more difficult for hackers to guess your password and help themselves to your data. An MFA vendor can be used to give your systems and staff an extra layer of security.
In the year after the end of domestic UK lockdowns, a lot of people worked in public places. When people use public wi-fi to access company systems, it’s easy for hackers to take advantage of. Every time someone works remotely, you should use a Virtual Private Network to keep your system and data safe.
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There is a significant challenge to the security of the internet.
There is a remote-work cyber security-hacking systems.
There is a clean desk policy.
You aren’t going to spend your day dusting, it’s not as neurotic as it sounds. If you leave your computer unattended, you should password-lock it and not leave data sticks or drives lying around. When you go away from the keyboard, take the key and put them in a drawer. That helps keep your systems and data out of danger. Hard copy data can be locked away when you leave the desk.
Cyber insurance is a form of insurance.
Cyber insurance has traditionally been difficult to get, and depended on small businesses having demonstrated they were doing a lot to tackle their cyber threat liability. The rising threat level for small and medium-sized businesses and the challenging economic outlook will make insurers raise their premiums and possibly even remove ransomware from their policies, just when small UK businesses need that protection more than ever.
Cyberinsurance is a necessary cost of doing business for small and medium-sized businesses, because the potential penalties for a major data breach are at least as damaging as the data breach itself.
