Many small business owners not only assume they are safe from hackers due to their size. Let’s continue exploring some true-to-life cybersecurity horror stories of small businesses that might convince you otherwise.
Go-Cart Racing Business Victimized by Phishing
Phishing scams can be very clever and can frighten business owners into giving out personal data under a false sense of urgency. Entrepreneur Rick Snow testified before Congress that he became such a victim, causing his Scarborough, Maine go-cart racing company to come up short on its payroll. As Fox Business reports, after receiving a fake email convincing him to update his banking passwords, Snow woke up one morning to find his business account completely drained—on a payday when his employees were expecting their checks. “We were supporting a number of families, many of which live paycheck-to-paycheck…” he said. “I was also very worried about our business’ reputation since a restaurant nearby had just bounced their paychecks and the company never recovered from the bad publicity they received…Phishing can happen to anyone, phishing attacks are meant to scare you and make you act without thinking.”
Mannequin Maker Loses Over $1 Million within Hours
In May 2012, as the Wall Street Journal reports, a 100-employee mannequin company in Brooklyn lost more than $1.2 million from its bank accounts in a matter of hours due to a cyberattack. The company, Lifestyle Forms & Displays Inc., first realized the problem when the head of finances got error messages while trying to log in to the bank account to pay a foreign vendor. Upon investigating, the company’s three-person IT team determined that cybercriminals had skimmed the company’s banking info through a virus that their up-to-date antivirus program somehow failed to detect. Most of the money was recovered within a couple of days, but $200,000 remains unaccounted-for.
If you believe you can’t afford to implement stronger cybersecurity measures for your business, consider this: According to an analysis by TechRepublic, a single hack can cost the average small business owner as much as $256,000. Unless you can afford to absorb that kind of loss, chances are you can’t afford not to have stronger security. To learn more about affordable cybersecurity solutions for your small busienss, call 1-877-NetServ today.