Since the pandemic has hit the world, as expected, cyberattacks have increased in number and severity.
As organizations have facilitated remote work, it has given cybercriminals and hackers the new opportunities to exploit uncertainty.
During the pandemic, 89% of small businesses are working from home according to the research carried out by Cyber Readiness Institute.
43% of the overall cyberattacks are targeted towards small businesses which has led all of us believe that internet privacy and cybersecurity has become more valuable during this pandemic.
Severity in Ransomware Attacks
According to the reports by Sonicwall, ransomware attacks have increased particularly in the US. The figure has double over the year and is up 109%.
The malware targeting the IoT devices has also gone up to 20.2 Million (50% increase since the last year).
Researchers have also found that the ransomware are very malicious and very demanding too. Constantly, criminal actors are threatening to expose company’s data if they don’t pay the ransom.
Despite a spike in the ransomware, some countries are doing just fine. In the UK, ransomware has decreased by 6% and in other places it has dropped by half.
However, North America seems to be the prime target for cybercriminals as it is up by 109% and in American alone it is up by 105% as discussed above.
Why Small Organizations are Not Ready for Cyberattacks?
It is obvious that small organizations do not have a deeper pocket and cannot invest a great amount in Information Security department as large companies normally do.
According to Cybint Solutions, small organizations only invest an average of 9.8% on IT budgets. With this kind of budget, they’re not able to get the best IT infrastructure or the expertise that is required in this field.
If that wasn’t enough, the global pandemic played a greater role in decreasing the cybersecurity budget and focusing on keeping the business alive.
Many small businesses had to shut down because of the decline in sales and customer attraction. They couldn’t even bear the cost of running the business let alone investing in cybersecurity.
Even the ones that did invest in cybersecurity are not cutting the cost for survival. In these testing times where internet privacy has become more important, small businesses are swaying away from it due to current circumstances.
How Does Cyberattacks Impact Small Businesses?
According to IBM, if small businesses do not focus on cybersecurity they could lose $320,000 on average.
If a small business loses such an amount, it is enough for any company to become bankrupt or it could result in job losses.
Efficient Services Escrow Group is one company that was late to discover the data breach but the hackers had already infiltrated with a Trojan Horse.
An amount close to $1.5 Million were wire transferred in two separate accounts i.e. in China and Russia. The company managed to get its hands on the Russian account but couldn’t find any trace of the money that was sent to an account in China.
What Can Businesses Do to Prevent Cyberattacks and Hacking?
We understand that small businesses do not have a budget to develop an IT infrastructure that could cost them thousands and even millions of dollars.
However, they can still manage to provide its employees with a safe network to share files and data.
These businesses can consider buying a VPN service as an alternative to spending millions on cybersecurity department.
For a much smaller company, they can try using a VPN that offers a free trial. They can experience how effective a VPN can be when all hope is lost.
A VPN hides your IP address and keeps your data protected through an encrypted tunnel. Not even a skilled hacker can break through that encryption which is 256-bit.
Key Takeaways
Small businesses make or break an economy so it is important for any country’s survival, especially in these tough times.
With the increase in the number of cyberattacks, small businesses are becoming more vulnerable. That is why, spending on cybersecurity has become ever so important.
With the use of VPNs and similar other technologies, sharing files and data will become much easier and safer.
Brett Thompson is a Marketing Professional-turned Tech Writer who is also a Privacy Advocate and a VPN Expert. He doesn’t hold back identifying the flaws in Privacy Laws and makes it easier for everyone to understand Cyber Security issues that are underlying after the post-COVID-19 world.
Internet privacy stock photo by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
