More than 40 percent of cybersecurity attacks that occur, impact small businesses. So it is important to do everything possible to protect your organization, and ultimately thwart intruders and malicious attacks before they happen. Focus on these three big threats that could crush your business.

Your Employees

Your employees have a lot of opportunities to unknowingly create cybersecurity threats within your business. Employees can threaten your company by:

• Accidentally downloading malware
• Sharing passwords
• Forwarding emails that contain confidential information

If information falls into the wrong hands, hackers can use it to infiltrate your computer network and steal sensitive data. Training is one of the best things you can do to limit threats from within your organization. Teach employees how to recognize malware so they don’t download it. Tell them about the importance of keeping private information private so they know why they shouldn’t share it.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that hijacks your computers until you pay a ransom. This type of malware affects a lot of companies, but it rarely gets reported because businesses pay the ransom to regain access to their computers. In May 2017, however, a ransomware program named WannaCry attacked more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries. Suddenly, businesses all over the world started to worry about ransomed computers. You have a few ways to protect your business from ransomware. First, you should update your operating system and software often. Ransomware often takes advantage of software flaws. Once discovered, developers can fix those flaws. You only get protected when you update to the newest version. Other ways to protect your business include:

• Using antivirus and antimalware software

• Using email security solutions

• Backing up your data in your environment
• Deleting suspicious files

• Understanding your security posture and remediating known issues (VAPT)

BYOD

About 60 percent of organizations have BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that let employees use their personal devices for work-related activities. Businesses prefer BYOD because it reduces costs and makes employees more available. Unfortunately, it can also increase your cybersecurity risks. Lost devices make it easy for hackers to infiltrate your system. If one of your employees leaves a smartphone on the bus, someone who knows how to break into the device could gain access to your networks, client contact information and other sensitive data. Personal devices can also become malware targets. Since individuals may not know how to protect their smartphones, malware can jump from their phones to your networks. Training can help curb BYOD issues. You can also:

• Establish boundaries so devices can only access certain data from within your building
• Create partitions so personal and professional files stay separate
• Use multi-factor authentications

You can’t stay ahead of every cybersecurity threat, but you can focus on the most prominent ones. By learning how to protect your business from these threats, you put yourself ahead of most businesses. Sources: https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/04/cyber-attacks-target-small-business.html https://hbr.org/2016/09/the-biggest-cybersecurity-threats-are-inside-your-company http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/15/528451534/wannacry-ransomware-what-we-know-monday https://www.insight.com/en_US/learn/content/2017/01182017-byod-statistics-provide-snapshot-of-future.html