As a business, Peralta Design understands the importance of cybersecurity not only for ourselves, but for our clients as well. Did you know that 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses? And that only 14% of small businesses state that their ability to mitigate cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks is highly effective?
Cyber Threats True Stories
Cyber threats are something that can affect every business, no matter the size. Here are some true stories of large businesses that faced cyber threats this past year.
Example 1: Earlier this year, the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles was forced to halt emissions tests after a malware attack on a DMV provider Applus Technologies. Despite being able to recognize and halt the actions taken by the hackers, the company’s services were still impacted and it took months for the state to have the system up and running again and to be able to provide emissions tests.
Example 2: This year, Colonial Pipeline Co., the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, had its networks hacked due to a single compromised password. This hack led to the shutdown of the pipeline and shortages across the East Coast, not to mention Colonial was forced to pay a $4.4 million ransom.
Cyber Threats To Your Business Are Real!
Protecting yourself and your business from these attacks is extremely important as 60% of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyber attack.
5 Ways To Combat Cyber Threats:
- Provide Employee Education–
- By creating a list of official protocols you can keep all employees on the same page when it comes to what is expected in regards to securing your company’s digital integrity.
- Invest in Cyber Insurance–
- As there are many types of cyber insurance available to businesses it is important for you to take time and talk to legal counsel or a compliance team regarding the type of coverage that would best suit your business.
- Be Up-To-Date with Software Updates and Schedule Regular Backups–
- Updates and backups are important, when your device has a software update available, do not let more than a month go by before installing. In addition, make sure to stay on top of backups as they are one of the biggest fail-safes against a number of cybersecurity threats!
- Ways to do this are with an external hard drive, flash drive, local network server, or a third-party cloud service.
- Use Strong Passwords–
- Check out our Do’s and Don’ts of Creating Passwords on our Owning 101: Password Best Practices
- Install Anti-Virus Software–
- A good anti-virus software solution will not only allow you to remove existing threats but also actively scan for imminent and inbound ones.
- Some of our favorites are
- A good anti-virus software solution will not only allow you to remove existing threats but also actively scan for imminent and inbound ones.