Every 39 seconds, a hacker attacks, adversely affecting one-third of Americans.

These bad actors throw out their phishing line and troll for personally identifiable information (PII), intellectual property, and other forms of sensitive data that you hope are locked up tight enough to deter them. However, they don’t limit their attacks to just the big names like Equifax or eBay.

Whether your company is big or small, cybercriminals want what you have – a treasure trove of data because they can monetize it. Don’t take their bait.

Defend Against Cyberattacks

FLEETCOR’s annual State of Small-to-Medium-Sized Business Cybersecurity 2022 Report discovered that 93% of businesses surveyed plan to increase or at least maintain funding for cyber defense in the next 12 months.

They know the risk of attack is real, particularly since 7% of respondents have experienced a cyber event in the past year – and want to improve their defenses.

1. Power to the People

And while your employees are your greatest asset – without them you cannot conduct business – they can be your greatest weakness if they are not trained to properly detect and react to cyberattacks.

Employees should have cybersecurity awareness training, especially considering 82% of breaches were caused by human error. Cybersecurity measures are not just an IT function. It is imperative for every single employee to understand how to defend critical information.

2. Fortify your Vault

Despite the need, just 40% of SMBs surveyed by FLEETCOR have enacted strong authentication and just 24% have conducted security awareness training. Both are crucial in lessening the adverse effects of the most common cyberattacks respondents experienced in the past 12 months, which were:

• • Phishing – 60%
  • Malware/viruses – 60%
  • Business email compromise (BEC) – 47%
  • Distributed denial of service (DDoS) – 20%
  • Third-party/supply chain attack – 20%
  • Ransomware – 13%

With this information at hand, why would you not create awareness and provide cyber literacy training, along with threat mitigation tools and technologies to enable the protection and resiliency needed to fend off many cyberattacks?

Educating employees in cybersecurity best practices and investing in strong security controls will help defend your organization against such threats.

3. Cybersecurity Help Wanted

According to the FLEETCOR report, half of SMBs report they will spend at least 6% of their annual IT budget on cybersecurity protection. However, 63% said capital resources are blocking them from reaching their desired level of cyber protection, and nearly half (49%) cited lack of expertise as a cause.

This is not surprising since the United States has a deficit of 359,000 cybersecurity professional positions. Consider outside help to protect your organization’s assets.

4. Payments Fraud is on the Rise

Our survey found that nearly half of SMBs have concerns surrounding payments fraud. And it’s no wonder since criminals are constantly innovating ways to transact false digital payments. Evolving payment methods always will be accompanied by evolving payments fraud – these bad actors never sleep.

Therefore, arm your employees with continual education against such attacks. And think, too, about partnering with someone well-versed and educated in defending against cyber breaches and attacks.

If you have yet to fall victim to such an attempt, it’s just a matter of time. This is not a scare tactic but a fact. You hold important data – and criminals will do whatever they can to get hold of it.

Explore More

• • Roundup: Cyber Security Month
  • Cyber Warfare: A New Enemy for Utilities
  • The People side of Cyber Security – Turning organizations’ weakest link into their greatest strength
  • Improving Cyber Security Awareness and Behavior
  • Cyber Security Readiness: Prevention vs. Response
  • Cyber Security Priorities – The Road Ahead!
  • Cyber Security: Realistically Handling The Risk of The New
  • What’s the “state” of State Cyber Security?
  • Why Cybersecurity is important for Business Growth
  • Creating a Winning Cyberthreat/Ransomware Management Strategy