(6 votes, 3.67 / 5
Loading...Businesses have long been a favorite target for scammers, and in the recent decades, more so among cybercriminals. Every week there is are news about websites being hacked, servers being compromised or database being destroyed; one thing common between all this is online businesses who either operate completely online or have a web presence to push their sales to new horizons. However, hackers seem to find it daring as well as lucrative to attack business websites and earn publicity for their shenanigans or rake profit out of it.
Traditional antivirus solution to protect business data is falling by the wayside as the modes of online attacks such as malware intrusion, zero-day exploits, Denial of Service (DoS) and phishing emails are becoming more sophisticated. The rising bar on the threat landscape has made it imperative for small businesses to seek help and expertise of third-party security vendors to adopt effective and appropriate endpoint security management options.
But the problem is, several of these businesses do not realize the severity of online attacks and the risk they pose on the future of their enterprise. Small businesses are faced with big vulnerabilities because they process user information in their daily transactions, but are ill equipped to protect business data like larger enterprises do. Business owners tend to overlook the clear and present danger that cyberattacks have in their operations, yet the real question is not “if” a business will be attack, but “when” will it take place. Cybercriminals seem well aware of this fact, and they are eager than ever to reap benefits of the situation. Below are a few more statistics from a recently conducted survey that exemplify the sorry state of endpoint security in the small business circle in the US.
- In 2014, more than 60% small and medium enterprises (SME) were targeted by online attacks.
- Nearly 58% businesses reported to be concerned about cybercrime, but over 51% of them are not investing in cybersecurity in order to combat the impending doom.
- When asked why they are not allocating enough budget to fight cyber attacks, 40% reasoned that it is because they do not believe they process any valuable data.
- Nearly 70% of respondents admitted that they process and store email addresses of customers, 64% claimed that they store users’ phone number and 54% said that they saved their customers’ billing addresses.
- A meagre 38% of businesses reported updating their endpoint security and other softwares routinely, while only 31% monitored their business credit reports.
- Additionally, only 22% of the respondents said that they took proactive measures to encrypt their business database.
Closing All Gaps in Endpoint Security
The other upshot that came out of the survey was that small businesses were not training their employees enough about cyber security, or the lack of it, and its impact on their enterprise. Humans, in this case employees, are the weakest link in a security network. So it pays off well in the long run to establish a work culture of educating staffs. Especially with the advent of bring your own device (BYOD) and the growing popularity of accessing social media at work, small businesses need to sketch out and enforce stringent device management and endpoint security policies to guard their networks.
For businesses that can’t afford to have dedicated IT teams to support and secure their network, there are plenty of endpoint security vendors who specialize in monitoring network traffic and providing an enterprise the tools that they need to stay secured.
Related Resources:
https://antivirus.comodo.com/blog/computer-safety/best-antivirus-of-2019/
