Small business owners might feel their businesses are too tiny to be a target for cyber attacks, however, they are wrong. It is easy for attackers to target hundreds if not thousands of small businesses at one time. For instance, within six months of the attack, about 60% of businesses who were victims of a data breach closed their businesses. Any organization can have devastating consequences, but small organizations are at greater risk. When a cyber threat occurs unprepared they may feel overwhelmed. Hence, they need to be aware of cyber threats and how to stop them.

Different Types of Cyber Threats

Phishing Attacks

The most damaging threat small businesses face is phishing attacks. During the attack, a cybercriminal aims to steal private personal information. For example, credit card, bank information, social security number, and passwords. Phishing works by cybercriminals sending messages that look like they are from a legitimate company or website to steal information.

Malware Attacks

Malware attacks are many types of malicious software that are designed to cause harm/damage to a computer, client, or computer network. During the attack, it “executes unauthorized actions on the victim’s system.” There are three types of malware: trojan horse, virus, and worm.

Weak Passwords

Small business owners may think their passwords are secure, however, it only takes one compromised password to take the business down. Easily remembered passwords can be easily guessed. For example, passwords such as 123456 or qwerty or even combinations of our names, graduation dates, or birthdays.

Tips for Small Businesses

1. Keep Software Up To Date: Most people believe software or systems do not have to be manually updated because of automatic updates on their PCs and laptops. But some software needs to be manually updated. For example, a Wi-FI router’s firmware can include security patches. In that case, updating software is important in fighting cyber threats.

2. Train your employees: The main cause of data breaches is employee negligence. About 47% of business leaders said human error by an employee caused a data breach at their organization. Therefore, it is crucial to take the time to train employees on cybersecurity measures. 

3. Use Two Or Multi-factor Authentication For Logins: This is an easy way to protect and keep your account safe from hacking. Authentication can be a multi-layered protection that verifies the identities of users when they log in. Two-factor authentication lets business owners quickly and easily verify users by requiring two methods to authenticate their identity. This provides extra protection from accounts getting hacked.

How humanID can help

humanID provides a safe, secure, anonymous, bot-resistant 2FA solution. It is a single-sign-on (SSO) tool that asks users to input a PIN which is sent to their phone number to confirm their identity. How does it work? When a user logins in with their number, it is tied to a slow hash and the phone number is deleted. The hash is stored in our database, however, it is never traced back to the user’s phone number. Instead of encrypting the login data it is stored in a hash which makes it very secure. In this case, to lower the risks of dangerous cyber attacks on the customer’s data or company database, companies can partner with third-party services such as humanID. Our mission is to provide a safe and secure connection to the internet which can benefit small businesses.