Cybersecurity is a critical consideration for businesses to make, as it isn’t hyperbolic to say that a cyberthreat could potentially end a business. Trust me, as a business owner myself, I’m not thrilled about the reality of the situation, but it’s too important for us not to discuss.

Believe me—I’d much rather be able to spend my time focused on using technology to help businesses do more. I relish the chance to optimize a company’s IT to bring its strengths to the forefront while minimizing (if not outright eliminating) its weak points. How can I help make the everyday processes easier for a client’s team members? How can I help them make the most of their time?

It’s what I love to do…but unfortunately, cybersecurity is a totally different animal, a stressful race between businesses and the cybercriminals incessantly trying to hurt them. It really makes you pine for the cybersecurity needs of the 1990s…when regular scanning and a reliable antivirus was, for the most part, enough outside of a few outlying situations that were directed toward big, big businesses and banks.

Sadly, this is no longer the case.

Your Employees are Almost Certainly Being Targeted

If you were to rank the most vulnerable elements of your business, where would your team members rank? For many businesses, the people working there are the weakest part of their cybersecurity—a problem that the most up-to-date firewalls, antivirus, and other cybersecurity protections don’t really help fix.

Not only do today’s cybercriminals know this, they are actively taking advantage of it. Instead of creating sneakier and more effective malware, they have elected to utilize social engineering and other, more ”old-school” forms of attack to sidestep all of the enhanced infrastructure protections that many businesses will prioritize. Why would a burglar learn how to pick a lock and disable a security system if they can more easily convince the doorman to let them in? The same goes for your business and its data. If your users offer the path of least resistance, the more likely it will be that cybercriminals will target them.

AI is Being Used to Make Hacking Easier…

Lately, it seems you can’t turn on the news or access the Internet without hearing something about artificial intelligence. While AI can help make many business processes easier, it can just as easily make the threats facing them more dangerous. Whether it is being used to create malware or refine existing phishing messages, AI is already being abused…despite built-in restrictions that are supposed to prevent this kind of use.

…On Top of All the Other Tools Currently Available

Not everyone who develops malware keeps their secrets to themselves. Many have further monetized their accomplishments in even-more-criminal multi-level marketing schemes where the pyramid is constructed of layers of people getting a cut of a phishing scheme’s profits. Others simply provide the tools they’ve created to those wishing to use them for a fee.

The cost of entry is relatively low for the aspiring cybercriminal, too. For a few hundred dollars or so (in addition to the extremely high risks of dealing in the cybercriminal underworld, of course) an aspiring hacker can get pretty much everything they need to engage in all kinds of scams. From stealing credit cards to spreading malware, the tools are readily available to someone willing to take on the risks.

Cybercrime is Treated as a Business, If an Illegitimate One

While the typical Hollywood portrayal of a hacker might look more like a lone wolf, alone in a dark basement, only illuminated by the pale blue light of their monitors, the reality is probably closer to what you’d imagine a call center might look like.

Today, cybercrime is largely an organized endeavor, with quotas and standard operating procedures. There is definitely a dark side to the whole thing, as many of the “employees” of these organizations are actually victims of human trafficking trying to earn back their freedom. This is another reason it is important to resist these scams, as their success only encourages this kind of abuse.

How Protected is Your Business?

Clearly, cybersecurity isn’t something that a small or even medium-sized business can neglect, and it isn’t a problem that can be solved by just delegating more and more money towards it. It takes careful and considered investments into tools that will help protect your business and meet any regulatory requirements you are beholden to, along with a comprehensive plan that addresses every aspect of your business’ cybersecurity, including:

• Active event and traffic monitoring
• Firewall and content filtering
• Endpoint encryption
• Spam protection
• Secure VPNs for remote staff
• Strong password policies and multi-factor authentication
• Staff cybersecurity training
• Centralized antivirus and antimalware
• Regular cybersecurity audits

While this may look like a lot, it is all important. Plus, many cybersecurity practices today take the form of policies that simply require consistent reinforcement, rather than repetitive costs. It will require some investment, sure, but compared to the costs of a successful cyberattack, it will pay for itself and more.

We can help you get started, and will be there with you every step of the way. Get started by reaching out at (410) 531-6727 to schedule a consultation with us.