Communicated Content – If you own a small business with an online presence, you will be in a tough situation. Those days are now well past us when only big businesses used to face threats because they were considered lucrative targets but nowadays, small businesses are facing threats just like big companies and it is important that small business owners stay protected against these threats. But before that, they will have to know about the major threats to small businesses and then take precautionary measures against those threats.
For this reason, we will be discussing some of the major threats to small businesses in 2022. Some of these threats are new while others are old and still very much in play. Keep in mind that they are compiled in no particular order.
Phishing
Although phishing attacks are pretty old, these are still the number one cybersecurity threat that small businesses face. We are still seeing a surge in the number of phishing attacks because phishing attacks require the least resources and are easy to attempt. The trend of phishing attacks is rising and small businesses are becoming the main target of cyber criminals instead of big brands because small businesses usually don’t have proper security measures in place and it is much easier for cyber criminals to exploit the security of a small business.
Microsoft Word Document Scams
In the past couple of years, Microsoft Word Document scams have become popular in which scammers exploit a bug in Microsoft Word. According to the report by the cybersecurity expert who discovered it, the victim downloads or receives the infected Word file, which instantly gives various accesses to the scammers including the ability to install new programs, view, changes, delete, or encrypt data, and create new accounts.
Microsoft has come up with patches for this bug so that users aren’t affected by this bug but since companies usually delay updating their software, this is still a major issue for those businesses that haven’t yet updated their Microsoft Office. As small businesses have to deal with a lot of digital documents such as Word Documents, PDF Documents, and Excel Spreadsheets, this is a major issue.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a very serious threat that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Currently, there are more than 1500 different types of ransomware that are being spread in various locations of the world. As global inflation is rising and the world is going through tough economic times, there has been a sharp increase in these ransomware attacks in recent years. It is expected that these attacks will continue to surge in upcoming years. The main reason why small businesses should be particularly worried about ransomware is that even the US government has been a victim of ransomware attacks which have cost them billions of dollars just to get their data back.
Cryptojacking
Although not as lethal as ransomware or phishing, cryptojacking is still a very popular threat to small businesses. In recent years, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherium have seen a huge increase in their demand and value. Although these currencies aren’t like real currencies such as dollar bills that can be minted, they are created through a process known as mining which is an energy and resource-intensive process that requires computing power to mine digital currencies.
The attackers hijack the computers and networks of small businesses using different methods such as logging into the admin network page of their wireless network, 192.168.0.1, and then force the computers to do all the energy-extensive computing for them which takes a toll on the network’s bandwidth and slows it down, which ultimately affects the whole operations of small businesses.
Undertrained Employees
Under-trained employees are still a major threat to small businesses. Undertrained employees who don’t know much about cybersecurity can cause huge problems for the company. Cybercriminals are well aware that small businesses don’t have enough resources to hire people with proper cybersecurity certifications. They are also aware that small businesses don’t have proper security measures in place. Some employees don’t even bother to change the password of the wireless gateway address, 192.168.1.1. As a result of this negligence, small businesses become easy victims of cyber criminals.
Understaffed Security
Even small businesses that have properly trained security staff members usually have a handful of them. Understaffed security is also a significant threat that can pose huge problems to the whole company. Most small businesses typically don’t have anyone in the role of cybersecurity expert and for those that do have, it is usually one person. This means that either no one will be filling this position which would make the data more exposed to hackers or someone with no experience will have to fill this position.
