2019 Cyber Attacks Targeting Small Business

The time has come for small business owners to be aware of the growing number of targeted cyber breaches and leaks.

According to a recent 4iQ Report, hackers are shifting their focus to small business…and for good reason. In 2019 4iQ published the Identity Breach Report, The Changing Landscape of Identities in the Wild: The Long Tail of Small Breaches.

Here’s what they observed:

“…A significant shift from attacks on not just large companies, but also on a greater number of small businesses – the long tail – as hackers targeted unsophisticated and unsecured small businesses and supply chain vendors.”

According to the report, “Small businesses and suppliers for large companies present weak links in the value chain — they have little to no cybersecurity budgets and are far less able to secure themselves from increasingly organized hackers who are systematically targeting them. Not surprisingly, in 2018, we saw a significant increase in the number of attacks on small entities.

 4iQ Identity Breach Report 2019 includes these highlights:

• 14B Identity Records circulating in 2018 (71% increase from 2017)
• 12,499 Real, New Identity Breaches (424% from 2017)
• Voter, Citizen, Govt. Data targeted in Cyber Cold War (291% increase from 2017)
• Massive Combo Lists snowballing (1.8B Clear Text Passwords in one package)
• 9.4B Raw Identity Records from Accidental Exposures (88% increase from 2017)

 If you have ignored cyber threats in the past, it’s time to take action this year. A good place to start is with the Alliance Network Assessment—it’s an excellent tool for providing critical information about your network and areas that are most often overlooked and neglected.

Alliance provides comprehensive reporting that helps you to understand the unique security and infrastructure landscape of your business. Based on the assessment results, you will be able to make actionable decisions that will have a lasting, positive impact on your overall IT health.

For expert guidance regarding security assessments and solutions, contact Alliance Technologies at 314-219-7887.