Data breaches: Small business killer

Updated: Nov 5

Think for a moment that:

60% of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) affected by some data leak go out of business within 6 months.
62 percent of CEOs of SMBs said that their firms don't have an up-to-date or active cyber-security strategy--or any strategy at all
Cyber-attacks to SMBs increased 420% is the 2017-2018 period.
Two-thirds of SMBs have suffered a cyber attack in the past 12 months
The chances are even higher if your business has a strong online presence. The costs will also be higher, which means that the likelihood you will suffer unrecoverable financial losses (bankruptcy) increases as well.
We are aware of this devastating risk since a long time ago (see this Huffington Post article from 2013 if you don't believe me)

Why

If we quickly analyze data from wikipedia we can see the most common causes of data breaches:

(see our analysis and fiddle with the data here)

Cyber-attacks happen every day. And if you're running a small or midsize company, you're a direct target for an attack. SMBs fall victim to the vast majority of data breaches because they tend to:

Lack of sufficient security measures and trained personnel
Hold data that's valuable to hackers (e.g., credit card numbers, protected health information)
Neglect to use an offsite source or third-party service to back up their files or data, making them vulnerable to ransomware
Connect to the supply chain of a larger company, and can be leveraged to break in

The security of SMBs has been easier security to crack than their larger counterparts, and this has been true for almost as long as the internet has been available. In the past hackers tended to focus on the bigger targets due to the ratio of effort and risk to reward.

But now, while larger businesses have been hardening their defenses, the majority of SMBs have had a tendency to believe that they are below the radar of hackers. This happens more and more every day, even when that particular firm has suffered a data breach in the past.

What to do

For SMB's, having the resources needed to grant a minimum level of protection from security threats is cost-prohibitive, so they tend to rely on Managed Services Providers (MSP). There are more and more MSPs focused on providing different levels of cyber security, and given the medium risk / high impact scenario, are even eager to pay 20% more AND changing providers if grant a higher level of cyber-security, according to very recent study by Continuum.

A disciplined approach to security, following the best practices, is an affordable and "trust-able" way to protect your digital assets and your business.

At Teracloud we help our clients at three different moments:

Before a cyber-attack, we preemptively protect your company from cyber threats by implementing cutting-edge technologies and industry best practices.

During a cyber-attack, our team will be standing by ready to repel any and all attackers.

After a cyber-attack, Teracloud's quick response can be the difference between a nuisance and going out of business. We can deploy anytime to help stop and mitigate damages.

If you have concerns about your infrastructure security or you just need a free assessment do not hesitate to contact us at info@teracloud.io