Almost everyday there’s a news story about a large company that has been hacked. People tend to think that cyber criminals only target the largest and most well-known companies, but that’s far from the truth. Small and medium sized business (SMB’s) are actually MORE vulnerable to cyber attack for a very simple reason: most small businesses don’t have dedicated IT departments, or the same budgets as the big guys to dedicate to cyber security. You just don’t hear about these breaches as much because they aren’t affecting big multi-nationals, and because many SMB’s don’t report them. That certainly doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.
Hackers are constantly devising new methods of attacks such as viruses, phishing scams, trojans, Ransomware, and so on. That’s why it’s so important that your business has a suite of different cyber security solutions to make it more difficult for the hackers.
Think about it this way: if a burglar is looking for a good “mark”, they’ll probably pick the house with no alarm system or camera’s, even if they end up with less loot as a result. Cyber criminals are no different. They are looking for low hanging fruit. If you have no cyber security protections, or a free antivirus program, you are a better target than the business three times your size that has invested heavily in security. It’s only logical.
By taking a layered approach to security, you can close the gaps in your protection. Since no single tool is effective at defending against all kinds of attack, only a layered defense can reliably keep you safe. To fully protect your business, you must have a business grade firewall, anti-virus software, and email filtering. But that’s just a start!
The solutions mentioned above are all passive tools. That means that they sit and wait for a threat to appear, and THEN they respond by blocking or removing it. To keep a hacker out, you need to close all the entry points into your network. That’s where Threat Detection comes in to play. An Advanced Threat Detection tool works by scanning your computers and networks, looking for hidden threats lurking on your network in the form of “footholds”. Footholds are basically the places hackers “hide” undetected inside your network. Threat hunting identifies footholds and provides detailed instructions for removing them. It also identifies vulnerabilities in your defenses that could lead to a future attack.
If you’re concerned about your cyber security, give us a call at (416) 966-3306 and we’ll be happy to review what you currently have in place, and provide recommendations for developing the perfect cyber defense. If you are interested in learning more about how to “stack” your defences, or if you’d like to find out more about Advanced Threat Detection, check out this video.