As a small and medium enterprise you may be thinking no one will want to target you. After all, you’re not the Government, Sky or BT.
So why would hackers go for you? Actually, there are a number of reasons why they would:
1) Small Companies Have Cheaper Security
A hacker will start out by testing the vulnerability of a website when plotting their attack. They often use something known as a ‘scanner’ – a piece of equipment that queries tens of thousands of internet addresses at a time, picking up any network with openings.
If the scanner returns any openers, this allows a hacker to enter. A real-life scenario of this would be a burglar creeping up and down your street at night trying every front door in hope to find one that has been left unlocked. If your house is the one that gets burgled, it’s not personal – it’s just that you made it easier for them by leaving the door accessible.
Companies that look for cheap security options or none at all on their website leave themselves vulnerable in a similar way.
2) DDos Attacks
Several distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks made the news in 2014 – Sony’s PlayStation Network, Feedly and Evernote were notable names.
They involve a number of computers bombarding your internet server with masses of data until they overload it and cause the server to go offline. Downtime for any business can be expensive.
3) Your Valuable Identity
Should your email account be hacked, the perpetrator is able to impersonate you. The benefits to them could be things such as raiding your contacts list without your knowledge. From here they can use this to find out a large number of details, such as financial, including your order history and account numbers on invoices.
4) Hackers Want Your Computer Power
DDoS attacks can be low profile to the point that it’s possible they go unnoticed. Once inside your network, the hacker has free reign.
They don’t necessary come looking for your credit card details or trade secrets either – there’s other benefactors they can get out of this.
The processing power on each of the computers on your network, otherwise known as CPU cycles.
If you’re looking to strengthen your business’ computer and network security, check out LSA Systems who do this for a living and haven’t had any complaints so far.