Overview & Importance of Cybersec for Small Business

Australian small and home-based businesses are at risk of hackers and cybercrime. Every day we read on the news about large businesses being hacked by cybercriminals. Recently, the ABC’s AM program “Cybercrime cost Australia over $4.5 billion last year” estimated the cost of cybercrime and cyber defense in Australia. Cybercrime costs Australian business just as much as burglary and assault.

This claim has been made in a study commissioned from a US market research company by Norton Symantec which makes its money selling security software.

The cyber defense costs include the costs for businesses to recover from a cyber attack. Large corporations may have the insurance or reserves to pay those costs, but many small businesses are just making ends meet. A cyber attack on a small business could end it. This blog has many examples of businesses adversely affected by cybercrime.

Example For Small Business

For example, consider this experience as a small-business owner with a website (Lets call her Jane). Hackers located in a foreign country created a false website that was a direct copy of Jane’s company website. They redirected all Jane’s customers to the fake site for a period of two months before she realized what was happening.

When Jane’s unsuspecting customers landed the fake website, they entered their personal information and payment information. This sensitive information was quickly used against her customers by the attackers who cleaned out their bank accounts and stole their identities.

For two months, Jane had no new business and even as she restored her site, she struggled, because her customer trust had been lost.

Jane could not get recourse from the criminals in a foreign country. The net loss to her business was more than $200,000.Jane’s online business quickly went out of it.

If you are a small business or a home-based or owner or know one, there is help available. You would implement an online safety program in your home to protect your children and assets from cybercrime,  so your small business should also have a cybersecurity plan.

In Australia, there are many resources available,  including this website,  which has all the tools and resources you need to guide you in implementing a cyber-safe plan.

Here are some necessary steps you should take to set up a cybersecurity plan, including:

Assess your risks: Symantec has researched the risks of small businesses around the world, and the numbers are not good. Over 77 percent of small businesses surveyed didn’t have a formal written Internet security policy for employees.

• Monitor threats: The best practices for protecting your computers at work are very similar to the home policies we have discussed before..

• Report cyber attacks: If a business is attacked, they should notify appropriate authorities.

• Implement a cybersecurity plan: The Federal Communications Commission has created a Small Biz Cyber Planner for businesses to use.

This online template allows the business owner to choose the topics relevant to their business and a guide is created on the spot and ready to print with template

• Protect your customers: Small businesses collect data and are expected by customers to keep that data safe.

• Train your employees: A business is vulnerable if the employees are not trained in safe online practices. Having a safety manual is not enough.

Create a cybersecurity plan for your business. If you work at a business that doesn’t have a plan, talk to your boss and share the resources in this article with them also you can hire us to safeguard your legacy. Many resources are free and implementing a plan could save your business.