The Expert Podcast

So, how scared should you be about a cyber attack on your business? Well, if you're a business, you should be pretty scared. According to Inc. magazine, 60% of companies that experience a cyber attack go out of business pretty quickly, often within six months. The vast majority of cyber attacks happen to small and midsize businesses. What does that mean? If you have a small repair shop, store, or restaurant, and you get hit with a cyber attack, more than likely, the damage done will not be recoverable.

You might say, "Well, how much damage could there be? I’m not a tech company." It doesn’t even matter if you're a tech company or not. Here's why: most of the time, the cyber attack isn't designed to be some kind of computer infiltration. What attackers are trying to do is hold you ransom. They’ll shut down any operating system you have, such as your point-of-sale system where you take credit cards, payroll systems, or accounts receivable so you can't collect money from your clients. They may also target things like your CMS, your customer management system. Without these technical systems, you're essentially out of business. They'll hold you for ransom and demand payment—$100,000, $200,000—depending on the size of your business. If you don’t pay, they’ll delete all your client files, records, or worse, sell them on the dark web, exposing your customer information.

The damage can be immense. What would it be like if you had to go without any sales for two or three weeks? Without collecting receivables from your clients? Without paying your employees? Without buying from vendors? The consequences are almost unrecoverable. Even if you get your data back, you're going to lose customers, lose employees, and have money out of pocket. You may even face government enforcement because you let your customers' information get exposed on the dark web.

This is a very serious issue. Do the bare minimum of best practices to prevent it. There are some things you can do, such as active monitoring and having a response plan. We’ve discussed this in other videos. If you want more information, you can click the link below for details. But don't be lulled into a false sense of security just because you're not a tech company. A cyber attack can still be debilitating. Even large companies, like in the CDK attack last year, saw 15,000 new car dealerships shut down for a month. They couldn’t sell or even fix cars. Fortunately, new car dealerships had millions in savings to weather the storm, but many small businesses don't have that much. You live week to week on your income, and that can be a problem going forward.

If you have questions about protecting yourself from a cyber attack or protecting against losses, click the link below. We're glad to be of assistance.

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