Many small businesses have a casual attitude toward information security, thinking they're too small to be targets.
Hackers routinely run automated scans on everything connected to the Internet--every router, every website--looking for vulnerabilities. The size of your business has nothing to do with what a hacker will see and how they take advantage of an opportunity.
Accessing small-business email accounts may not be as big as hacking into a financial institution, but what if there are messages in the inbox accessed contains account signup notices for various online services? Hackers can take advantage, resetting passwords and gaining information.
Online commerce isn’t the only danger from hackers. If an attacker accesses a customer database that contains information such as social security numbers? Depending on the laws of your state, you may be required to notify each customer in that database of possible identity theft, costing you time and money.
Because large corporations are such big targets, they budget large sums of money toward protecting themselves online. This, in turn, leads hackers to smaller companies, as their security is not usually as tight.
Your first line of defense seems simple enough: Purchase and maintain software to scan remove viruses and malicious software. It’s easy to put off purchasing software and running the necessary updates, even for software that comes pre-installed on new computers.
Another absolutely necessary step includes configuring firewalls and the security parameters of wireless networking devices. This may sound expensive, but it’s much more cost-effective than having to reconstruct lost data and inform your customers of a security breach.
