I hear it over and over, I won’t get hacked, my business is too small. Or, I don’t have anything a hacker would want. As recently as five years ago, that might have been true. But today, most of the attacks are automated, so if you have the wrong IP address, or your business gets randomly selected, guess what, you just got hacked, and you might never know it.
Today, there are hackers who sell their services to anyone for cheap. So that competitor you had an argument with last week, could hire a hacker for just a couple hundred bucks and likely put you out of business with a simple attack.
Don’t believe me? Whether you do or don’t, you should probably read on, just to understand what you’re up against.
With over 350,000 new malware discovered every day by AV-TEST Institute (a premier institution working on digital security), it’s more important than ever to secure your digital products and services.
To make matters worse, a data breach exposing client PII can quickly escalate into serious reputational damage, fines, civil lawsuits and costly litigation. In its new 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Study for IBM, the Ponemon Institute continues to track the escalating year-over-year costs of data breaches.
According to the 2019 study, the average cost for each lost record increased from $148 in 2018 to $150 in 2019.
What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
PII is any information about an individual maintained by an business, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information.
What Pieces of Information are Considered PII?
Any piece of personal information that can be used to identify an individual, and includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Full name
- Home address
- Email address
- Social security number
- Passport number
- Driver’s license number
- Credit card numbers (even last 4)
- Date of birth
- Telephone number
- Log in details
- Gender
- Race
- Age
- Workplace
- Job position
So, even if you only have 20 clients, and you only have the above data on your clients, and your computer should get hacked, it could cost you more than (15 records each X 20 clients X $150 per record) =
$45,000
And I’ll bet you have more than 20 clients.
It’s time to get serious about protecting your client’s data, employees jobs and your income. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated, even turning off your residential grade antivirus software before attacking your computers.
So what about your firewall and Antivirus?
Are your firewall and antivirus worth the money?
Yes, security software is a vital part of your cybersecurity – but the keyword in that statement is part. Today’s attacks are programed to turn off many residential grade antimalware products.
You should definitely invest in the usual cybersecurity solutions, a firewall and antivirus, but they are not enough on their own. Cybercriminals have so many tactics and methods for penetrating a business like yours that you can’t settle for defending yourself on one front alone.
Still don’t think you need to be concerned?
Statistics report that 43% of cyber attacks in 2018 targeted small businesses, and that percentage will only increase, and according to an IBM study, it takes an average of 197 days for a company to identify a data breach—and another 69 days to contain it. That’s for large businesses with IT Teams and Security Teams. How long might it take for you to find out you’ve been breached? And how long to get the problem fixed?
Are you prepared for an attack on your business?
Would you even know if it happened?
If you would like to learn about steps you can take to protect your business, sign up for our “GodFadda” Security Tip Series and Cyber Security Alerts which will notify you if a new and highly dangerous threat is released, so you and your employees can be on high alert.
If you’re really serious about protecting your business, call HBBTech today at
(636) 542-8653
We have been providing cyber security to small office and home office professionals in St Charles County, Missouri since 2014 and we have not had one client suffer a successful cyber breach, yet! This same cyber security protection is now available to small offices and home offices all across the USA.
Call US TODAY – Before it’s too late!
Don’t wait to get hacked, before you act!
