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It was yet another week of bad security news. We heard about hackers who had been breaking into cell phone networks and stealing call records for years. Then, we heard about vulnerabilities in the Global Entry System. It hasn’t resulted in a breach yet, but the possibility is there.

It’s impossible to ignore these news stories because you would think large phone system operators and the federal government of the United States would have the resources to protect the data on their systems. Even large, well-funded organizations that should know how to secure its systems are often unable to.

When you look at all the data that’s been spilled in the various reported hacks we’ve heard about over the last year alone, it’s impossible not to get discouraged. And that’s just the ones that have been reported. It’s entirely likely there are countless more that we don’t know about yet.

Small business are not immune

It would be easy to think that this is a problem for larger organizations with valuable assets like phone records, and that it wouldn’t really affect smaller business. Unfortunately, the size of your business does not necessarily correlate to whether you are a target or not.

In fact, according to a recent article in CPO Magazine, half of all cyber attacks are aimed at small business. The article references a study by Cybint Cyber Solutions.

As the article goes onto point out, small businesses don’t tend to invest very much in cyber security. That means they are probably counting on you, as their MSP, to help them stay as secure as possible, using tools and techniques that they can afford and make sense in the context of their businesses. 

It’s probably not about the dollars being spent — it’s more about making sure you are taking care of the things you can control. For instance, you can’t completely guarantee your clients won’t receive a phishing email or a social engineering attack. However, you can work with them so they learn to be suspicious when people are asking too many questions or identify suspicious emails.

It can take a bit longer, but at least you’re practicing good security hygiene. It’s these types of small things that can add up to better security without spending a ton of money to do so.

It’s easy for everyone to get discouraged by scary headlines, but you have to keep trying to do whatever you can to keep your organization as secure as possible, even when that seems like a tall task indeed.

Photo: Hurst Photo / Shutterstock


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Ron Miller

Posted by Ron Miller

Ron Miller is a freelance technology reporter and blogger. He is contributing editor at EContent Magazine and enterprise reporter at TechCrunch.

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