Page 44 - Cyber Defense eMagazine - November 2017

COULD YOUR REACTIVE CYBER SECURITY APPROACH PUT

YOU OUT OF BUSINESS?

by Ajay Unni, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stickman

Cyber security is a concern for businesses of any of size, but it’s especially pressing for smaller
companies.
That’s because they tend to be more vulnerable than larger enterprises. They often lack the
resources and manpower to fully protect themselves from a sophisticated attack, which can
make them very appealing targets.
In fact, Small Business Trends reports that smaller businesses encounter nearly half (43
percent) of all cyber-attacks. What’s scary is the damage that can stem from an attack. Many
companies never recover, and 60 percent of SMBs end up going out of business within six
months.

Protecting your business through effective cyber security processes can literally mean the
difference between averting disaster or being so crippled by it that you have to close your doors.

One area where many organisations go wrong is taking a reactive approach to security rather
than a proactive one. They often end up waiting until something happens and responding to it
rather than taking effective measures to heighten cyber security ahead of time.
This obviously isn’t ideal, but could it put you out of business?

Some Unsettling Statistics

Small Business Trends provides some additional data that puts perspective on the current state
of cyber security attacks.
Studies have found that 55 percent of SMBs dealt with a cyber-attack between May 2015 and
May 2016. They also found that 50 percent experienced data breaches that compromised
customer and employee data during that same period.

So in theory, at least half of all SMBs will suffer from some type of cyber-attack during any given
year. In terms of specific attacks, these were the most common:

• Web-based attack (49 percent)
• Phishing/ social engineering (43 percent)

• General malware (35 percent)

• SQL injection (26 percent)
• Compromised/stolen devices (25 percent)

• Denial of services (21 percent)

In terms of costs, the affected enterprises ended up spending an average of $879,582 to cover
the expenses of damage or theft to their IT assets. On top of this, there’s the issue of disruption
to operations, which resulted in an additional $955,429.

44 Cyber Defense eMagazine – November 2017 Edition
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