As a small business owner, you have a lot to manage in addition to pleasing your target audience. A growing concern for anyone that operates a business is how to keep data safe from potential scammers. Whether you trust an IT person with all of your online stuff or try to do it yourself, cybersecurity threats have become a major problem for small businesses.
What Cybersecurity Threats Does Your Small Business Face?
According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are targeting small business owners with increasing frequency. Some of the top business scams that they perpetrate include online purchasing, phishing, and tax collection schemes.
Your business might receive an incredible offer for supplies or software as a service (SaaS) that it doesn’t want to pass up. When you head over to a fake website and provide your payment information, you’re likely to lose big.
Phishing scams occur when a business owner or employee opens an email that asks them to click on a link or open an attachment. By doing this, scammers can download malware onto the business’ computer and steal data.
A tax collection scam begins when a business receives a call from someone pretending to be a representative of the government. That person will state that the business owes taxes and threaten to suspend the businesses’ license if payment isn’t made immediately.
Cybersecurity Threats Put Small Businesses in Jeopardy
Small businesses that get scammed by hackers and other bad actors are facing several outcomes. First, there is likely going to be a significant loss of data and financial resources. This can be devastating for a small business that already has tight margins or is working with limited cash flow.
Another serious consequence of a data breach, however, is the loss of trust among customers. Consumers have become incredibly sensitive to data security concerns in recent years, and may not be loyal to a company that loses their data or isn’t forthcoming about a breach.
How Small Businesses Can Protect Themselves Against CyberThreats
When you’ve invested so much in establishing and building your business, it would be a shame to lose everything due to the actions of a scammer. According to the Better Business Bureau, small businesses should take five steps to safeguard against cybersecurity threats.
1. Identify
Take stock of the different types of technology that your company uses, as well as what kind of information you would need to recreate your systems if they were compromised. Create an inventory of your data and create a system to track potential threats.
2. Protect
Determine what safeguards you need to put in place to protect your business from different types of cyber threats. Create policies for your technology use and make sure that your contracts with technology providers include the right protections.
3. Detect
Put systems in place to alert you of any potential threats to your systems or data breaches. Train your staff to identify and quickly report issues.
4. Respond
Create a detailed Incidents Response Plan to minimize any cyberattacks or threats and ensure business continuity.
5. Recover
Know what your business needs to do short and long-term to recover from a cyberattack. This includes dealing with lost data as well as handling communications with customers and any damage to your business reputation.
Nolan Accounting takes the data security of its clients seriously. We are a professional accounting firm focused on building relationships with small businesses that are focused on success. We serve small business clients throughout Southeast Wisconsin. Contact us today to learn more about our services.