Four Things You Should Know About Securing Your Small Business

Category: disaster recovery   |   Presented By: Symantec

In fact, targeted attacks on SBs now account for 30% of all targeted attacks While still less than those targeted at enterprises, the numbers are growing and other attacks forms are increasing. For example, one in five SBs was targeted with at least 1 spear-phishing email in 2013.
You've read the headlines : "Data breach" , "Small vendor used in big attack!" Small Businesses are under
increasing attacks from cyber criminals. They are used frequently as a stepping stone to a bigger target
such as the big enterprises they conduct business with.
In fact, targeted attacks on SBs now account for 30% of all targeted attacks.1 While still less than those
targeted at enterprises, the numbers are growing and other attacks forms are increasing. For example,
one in five SBs was targeted with at least 1 spear-phishing email in 2013.
On top of that, the risk to the overall livelihood of the SB is much greater than the typically more
protected enterprise. With less protection in place and less cushion or IT resources to help your business
recover from a breach, for an SB, an attack can mean the difference between success and failure.
We all have experienced software and system updates that offer critical patches against security threats.
What may not be obvious is that these patches only come after malware and other security incidents have
occurred. The timing between the identification of malware and the patch can range from weeks to
months; leaving otherwise unprotected systems vulnerable until the patch is released. Attackers often
wreak havoc during the period leading up to a fix from the vendor to address the problem. The top five
threats in 2013 that leveraged vulnerabilities like these had 19 days of total exposure and took an
average of 4 days to patch. Without a protection system that is both proactive and thorough, that means
millions of opportunities for your company to fall victim–losing business critical information, productivity,
and money
Being resource and budget conscious does not have to mean forgoing necessary protections. With easyto-implement
and easy-to-use, cloud-managed security offerings, SBs can get the protection enjoyed by
larger enterprises without the need for large teams of IT staff to manage them–with pricing that is
affordable
And, because adding users can typically be done at any time - cloud-managed services offer the scalability
to address the needs of a growing business over time.
Small Businesses should look for security products that outperform in three key areas:
• Ease-of-use: Security products that are easy to install and use allow SBs to focus on running their
businesses, not on running software.
• Speed: An effective security product should work fast to complete scans without noticable impact to a
user's computer or system resources.
• Effectiveness: While speed is important, speed at the cost of effectiveness is a problem. A highperforming
security solution should proactively protect against all known and unknown threats without
impacting daily business functions.
Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently,
enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored.Symantec offers flexible, scalable, cost-effective security to help protect growing businesses like yours.
And, because adding users can typically be done at any time.

tags Security Threats | Data Security | IP Networks | Firewall | enterprise mobility | Networks