Why SMBs Need to Implement Strong Cybersecurity Solutions

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) represent a large percentage of the companies in the global economy. The World Trade Organization reports that “small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent over 90 percent of the business population, 60-70% of employment and 55% of GDP in developed economies. SMEs, therefore, do not just significantly contribute to the economy – they ARE the economy.“

For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that there are 33.2 million small businesses in the United States, making up 99.9% of all businesses in the country. It’s safe to say that a vast majority of the population relies on small businesses for employment or to address their families’ daily needs.

Most SMBs have valuable enterprise data resources and IT environments that need to be protected from cyberthreats. While the headlines may concentrate on data breaches and exploited vulnerabilities affecting larger companies, falling victim to a cyberattack can be devastating for an SMB.

We’re going to look at why SMBs are likely to be attacked and what they can do to protect themselves and minimize the damage.

Why SMBs Are Attractive Targets for Threat Actors

SMBs make attractive targets for threat actors for a variety of reasons.

• The rise of ecommerce requires most SMBs to digitally store sensitive customer and cardholder data. They do not have the experience of larger corporations with providing robust security for these valuable data resources. This combination makes SMBs prime targets for threat actors.
• Digital transformation may result in sensitive information being inadequately protected. Processes that were previously sufficient to safeguard data resources may not transfer seamlessly to the digital landscape.
• Many SMBs are affected by a lack of in-house cybersecurity expertise that may result in vulnerabilities that put data assets at risk. This includes misconfigured security settings that expose cloud resources to unnecessary risks.
• WordPress is an extremely popular tool for building websites used by more than 40% of websites on the web. Insufficient security in its components and add-ons can negatively impact an SMB. The plugin architecture employed by WordPress makes it susceptible to vulnerabilities. Our Global Threat Intelligence Report shows clearly that WordPress is the most attacked web framework.
• SMBs are often part of the supply chain for larger enterprises. A supply chain attack may be initiated on an SMB to gain access to other organizations in the chain.

Larger companies that have experience protecting digital resources are often better protected against cyberattacks. The sophistication of today’s threat actors is not limited to the types of attacks they launch. They have also become more adept at identifying vulnerable businesses that are easier to exploit. Unfortunately, many SMBs fall into this category.

Common Types of Cyberattacks on SMBs

SMBs are vulnerable to the same types of cyberattacks that afflict large corporations. Following are examples of the wide variety of threats faced by SMBs.

• Phishing and whaling attacks are often perpetrated to plant malware or compromise a user’s login credentials.
• Malware, including ransomware, can be introduced to the environment through phishing attacks and other methods.
• Credential and device theft gives threat actors access to an SMB’s valuable data resources.
• Insider threats have become increasingly prevalent and can be hard to prevent with traditional cybersecurity defenses. Malicious insiders can use elevated privileges to compromise sensitive enterprise data.
• Man-in-the-middle attacks position a threat actor between a user and an application in an attempt to steal personal information or compromise credentials.
• Denial of service attacks can bring down an SMB’s website server, making it extremely difficult to service its customers.

Repercussions of a Cyberattack on SMBs

SMBs that fall victim to a cyberattack can incur a variety of costs and damages.

• Ransomware payments may be necessary to regain access to valuable enterprise data resources.
• The cost of business interruptions and system outages can be substantial and result in lost business opportunities.
• Recovering the affected systems can be costly and time-consuming, causing further damage to the business.
• Reputational damage and decreased customer confidence as a result of a cyberattack can be very hard to effectively address. This type of damage can be more detrimental to a business over the long term than the immediate financial aspects involved in recovering from the attack.
• Legal expenses including notifications of data breaches can quickly add up and threaten an SMB’s profitability.

The repercussions of a cyberattack on an SMB can be much more detrimental than those of a similar attack against a larger corporation. Many SMBs lack the financial resources necessary to withstand an extended outage or to pay exorbitant ransomware demands. A successful cyberattack is much more likely to put an SMB out of business, making it imperative that they take all available measures to prevent an attack in the first place.

Using XDR to Enhance SMB Cybersecurity

XDR complements the functionality of traditional cybersecurity solutions such as firewalls and antivirus software. The capabilities of an XDR solution enable unknown threats to be detected by collecting and consolidating telemetry from across the IT environment.

The sophisticated nature of cyberthreats increases the importance of implementing an XDR solution to enhance a company’s security posture. An XDR solution enables reactive and proactive threat hunting that can identify potential intrusions before they have a chance to impact the infrastructure.

Samurai XDR is a cloud-based, Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that is designed to enhance the cybersecurity posture of any size business. Samurai XDR can be especially effective for SMBs that are challenged with providing adequate security yet are prime targets for cyberattacks. The most impactful benefits of Samurai XDR include:

• The ability to detect anomalous behavior that often indicates the presence of a threat actor or malware infection;
• Providing visibility into the complete digital estate while consolidating and prioritizing potential threats to streamline the work of security personnel;
• The capacity to consolidate weak signals that in themselves may appear to be irrelevant but when taken together show a suspicious pattern of moving laterally through the environment;
• Employing advanced threat intelligence (TI) to detect and notify security personnel about known threats before they can impact the environment.

The SaaS nature of Samurai XDR eliminates the need for SMBs to build and maintain a security stack from discrete components. XDR allows this function to be outsourced to the XDR platform’s provider. SMBs challenged with a lack of technical resources will find this a valuable feature for improving the company’s cybersecurity defenses.

Let the experts at Samurai show you how XDR addresses the gaps in your security controls and provides more effective threat detection and protection for your SMB’s IT environment.