Have you wondered about the increase in phishing calls and emails you’ve been receiving? ⁠ Why would someone want to specifically target your small business?⁠ Why not go after a larger target? 

The truth is hackers have plenty of reasons to attack and breach your small business. Small business owners often don’t see the true value of their assets and sensitive data that a hacker would love to get their hands on. 

Let’s breakdown the Top 3 reasons your business is the perfect target for hackers:⁠ 

1- Stealing Client Data  

All it takes is one successful phishing email, sent to you or one of your employees. Hackers are not just interested in you, but the entire network of data they can find by accessing all the data you’ve collected from customer transactions. This might look like gaining access to your billing system, email, or document storage. If they gain access to any of these they can find their way to bank information, addresses, passwords, customer contacts, social security numbers, sensitive documents and so much more.  

2- Holding Data for Ransom  

  Now why would a hacker want access to this data and what can they really do with it? Unfortunately, ransomware attacks on businesses of all sizes have become common in recent years. Once bad actors gain access to your data they place malware in your systems, corrupting them or holding hostage your valuable data until you pay the price they are asking.⁠ This can often do irreparable damage to a small business who either can’t pay the ransomware fee, does not have cyber insurance or a dedicated IT team who can help them prevent this scenario. 

3- ⁠Impersonating You  

Another common reason for hacking a small business, it grants access to their entire roster of often high profile clients. Why bother hacking multiple companies when you can hack just one, impersonate them and easily gain access to a network of valuable information? This is the thought process behind hackers who may try to gain access to your email or other communication systems. Once they enter your systems, they can view your entire history of communication with clients, making it far easier to perform an informed and believable phishing scam. A phishing scam is performed by posing as you or your business, and using that existing trust with your clients, to extract money, sensitive documents and much more. 

Now what can you as a small business owner do to prevent hackers from accessing your business? The key is proper Cyber Security training for you and your team as well as having a dedicated IT team who can work with you to create policies that minimize your risk of a hack. 

If you have any questions about what IT support from ProActive can do for your business, fill out our contact page and schedule a call.