A small business can be confident it’s doing everything right with regard to safeguarding its critical data, while overlooking one key vulnerability: the company website.
That’s the primary takeaway from this Small Business Computing article, which should serve as a wakeup call for any small business committed to preventing their data from becoming compromised.
Regardless of the security measures in place that provide end-to-end malware protection, network safeguards and a comprehensive BYOD-security policy, sufficient emphasis must be placed on ensuring a secure online presence.
According to the article, “The IT security battleground has a new front. Rather than launch fruitless attacks on fortified networks, hackers are targeting the websites of small business. And they’re succeeding.”
It seems that while a small business might be doing everything else correctly, when it comes to its website it’s often the basic default security settings that are implemented despite the more robust options typically offered by web hosting providers.
There’s simply too much at stake for such risk-taking.
From the piece, “The results of inaction can prove catastrophic. Nearly 60 percent of small businesses that fall victim to a cybercrime shutter their doors within six months … Like many consumers living paycheck to paycheck, many small firms can’t afford to have their cash flow interrupted.”
Another disturbing—and potentially fatal—outcome of a website-based malware infiltration is a small-business’ website being blacklisted by Google.
“On average, the search giant blacklists 9,500 websites each day. Getting blacklisted by Google can, in effect, render them a non-entity to the world at large,” says the article.
And while uncomfortable to ponder, the implications of such an outcome could prove irreparably damaging to a company’s reputation and bottom line.
I encourage you to read the Small Business Computing article in its entirety to learn more about the ways in which you can ensure your small business is doing all it can to stay protected from the countless outside threats that wish to do you harm.
Thanks for reading.
