NordVPN Provide Tips for Small and Medium Enterprises on How to Enhance Cybersecurity
Research conducted by the Ponemon Institute showed that only 28% of small and medium enterprises (SME) mitigate cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks effectively. Nearly half of such companies have no understanding of how to protect their data, finances, employees, and customers against cyber attacks.
Q4 2019 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
“This study proved that small and medium businesses often do not take even the most basic steps to protect their digital resources,” says Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN Teams. “As big hacking scandals are more prominent, small business owners usually think that only companies with vast amounts of valuable data are the main targets. However, almost half of all cyberattacks are directed at small and medium enterprises.”
According to Daniel Markuson, working for a business VPN solution NordVPN Teams, small businesses may often be even more attractive for cybercriminals. Bigger enterprises usually have more advanced security solutions and are much more difficult to hack.
Why Small And Medium Enterprises Are Attractive For Hackers
- They own valuable data. Contrary to what most of the small companies may think, they do have useful data for cybercriminals. It can be anything from personal details valuable for identity theft, to the financial information that can be used for fraud.
- The path to other enterprises. Often hackers target small companies for an easy way to access larger companies. It can also be a path to access the sensitive data of many other small and medium businesses.
- Easy to hack. Small businesses often lack adequate cyber-defenses. It means that they are frequently much easier to hack compared to the large companies. There are usually no security technology and personnel place, so it’s also more challenging to detect an attack when it happens. Effective handling of digital threats is impossible without a security policy applied to all employees.
- More difficult recovery. All small businesses have computer-based data. However, only a few can recover from a cyberattack independently. For a small or even medium enterprise a cyberattack might be the end of the road. That’s why small and medium business owners are more likely to pay ransoms for criminals.
Protecting from phishing attacks
Spear-phishing and ransomware attacks are the most common cyberattack used against small and medium enterprises. The first one is an email-spoofing attack seeking unauthorized access to valuable data. The second one blocks access to a mobile phone or computer until the cybercriminals receive a ransom payment. There are thousands of different ways to harm any company, its customers, or employees. Some of the methods don’t even require technological knowledge – social engineering schemes are easy and effective to launch.
NordVPN is the world’s most advanced VPN service provider that is more security oriented than most VPN services. It offers double VPN encryption, malware blocking & Onion Over VPN. The product is easy to use, offers one of the best prices on the market, has over 5,000 servers worldwide, and is P2P friendly. Find out more on nordvpn.com.
