海角大神

Think your business is too tiny to get hacked? Think again. Attacks聽against small businesses are rising in number and diversifying in type.聽

Cybersecurity thefts last year cost businesses an estimated $450 billion 鈥� and a聽growing portion of those were against small businesses, said Brett Hansen, the聽executive director of Dell Data Security Solutions. He and Michael Kaiser of the聽National Cybersecurity Alliance sketched out the threat landscape and聽recommendations for small business security at this year鈥檚 South by Southwest聽Interactive conference in Austin, Texas ().

The data on attacks can look daunting, prompting some small business owners聽to just rely on legacy technology or, worse, the hope they聽can fly under hackers' radar. The good news is that no one is facing the聽threat alone and, with some structured thinking and appropriate technology, the聽risk can be mitigated.

鈥淲hat a CSO is facing at a large company is no different than what a CEO is facing聽at a small company,鈥� said Mr. Hansen. That boils down to: 鈥淚 need to balance a聽mobile, productive, collaborative, efficient workforce, getting my business done聽as effectively and efficiently as possible, but at the same time maintaining a risk聽profile that will allow me to protect myself.鈥澛�

Here are some of the emerging threats that can prove crippling for small聽businesses:

• Bank account hacks. Hansen notes that there has been a significant growth聽over the past six months in small business bank accounts getting hacked. The聽average loss is $35,000.
• Ransomware. This type of malicious code downloads to your computer and聽encrypts everything on the device 鈥� and potentially across your entire聽network. The average cost for a small business is $25,000.
• Intellectual property theft. This is a particular risk for IT and technology-focused companies.

Many businesses are inundated with cybersecurity solutions offered by an array聽of vendors. Hansen recommends taking a step back and thinking through your聽specific security problems before wading into the marketplace filled with聽promised solutions.

Step 1:聽Do a data inventory. What are the things I need to protect? And where are聽my data crown jewels kept?

Step 2:聽Ask yourself, how does the day-to-day conducting of business put that聽data at risk?

Sept 3: Only now should you ask, how do I build a solution to address those risks?聽鈥淚f you jump right to solution, you are openly going to fail this endeavor,鈥� said聽Hansen.

These talks were part of a series of discussions hosted at Passcode's booth at SXSW. See all that Passcode, Dell, Mozilla, and the Center for Democracy and Technology聽听补苍诲听.