Small And Medium Businesses Must Face The Reality of Cyber Security

Small And Medium Businesses Must Face The Reality of Cyber Security

Small business cyber security is a critical issue in the IT industry, but unfortunately, Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often don’t share the same level of concern. Despite the widespread knowledge of the real threat of cyber attacks, SMB owners often believe that they are not big enough to be targeted. The truth is, that hackers do not discriminate and will target any business with security vulnerabilities. To raise awareness, it’s crucial to emphasize the unpredictability, high cost, and devastating effects of cyber attacks on SMBs.

It depresses me to imagine that this marvelous technique, originally designed for sharing knowledge, has evolved into such a hostile environment. I remember a time when we thought of the Internet as being exclusively for nerds, and we had to rely on a modem to connect to it. Typically, “logging on” has a specific purpose, such as checking your email or conducting research. In today’s world, the Internet is unavoidable. In the future like electricity and water, the Internet will become an essential thing in everyday life of people. A key point to remember is that the Internet was created with functionality in mind, not security. The bad guys have arrived.

As a managed service provider, at Supreme Cyber, we frequently had to recover businesses from malware attacks. Unfortunately, some companies lacked knowledge of cyber security, leading to employees or receptionists clicking on links within spam emails. This made these businesses vulnerable to multiple attacks. It was only after suffering the consequences of a malware virus that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) would start considering implementing security measures.

Effective cyber security services should comprise of knowledge and understanding, evaluation, and problem-solving to minimize the risk of cyber threats.

At Supreme Cyber, we use the following benchmark to assess an SMB’s cyber security performance:

  1. Enable multi-factor authentication on all advanced and remote access systems.
  2. Make daily backups and regularly test the system.
  3. Keep operating systems and applications up-to-date with patches.
  4. Configure macro settings in Microsoft Office.
  5. Restrict administrative privileges and harden user applications.
  6. Maintain control over applications.

Everyone in the IT sector is aware of the real threat of cyber attacks on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Whether it be developing websites, writing application forms, or supporting business networks, cyber security must be a top priority for SMBs.