Cyber-crime – how big a threat to your small business?
Cyber-crime is a complex crime and yes it is a real threat to businesses – big and small. It’s a crime that’s evolving, adapting and spreading as criminals adopt the latest technology faster than the good guys can catch up and it’s becoming impossible for police and the law to crackdown.
With Christmas just around the corner online retailers and suppliers are bracing themselves for an onslaught of cyber- attacks. The message is tighten up security or risk losing money during the most profitable time of the year. But who are you protecting yourself from.
The faceless criminals are difficult to profile, track down and stop.
From a lone teenager in his bedroom to a nest of international cyber criminals with rows of computers scanning the networks seeking a back door into a business that’s easy to nudge open and rapidly steal the data.
“Since TalkTalk had its incident there certainly has been a heightened level of attacks. We have had more attacks than before,” Olaf Swantee, the chief executive of mobile and internet provider EE
Hackers’ success after success leads to increasing confidence and every day bolder and more daring attempts to hack companies’ data take place. It’s easy for hackers to create fake profiles, fake Wi-Fi, fake payroll numbers. Once inside your computing systems hackers can quickly transfer money to an untraceable bank account.
As business owners we understand these are malicious attacks on businesses and individuals but do we really understand the extent of the impact on our businesses.
There’s little recompense for you or your business following a breach of security. Not only do you lose valuable data, lose clients trust and damage your reputation but you also risk paying hefty fines because you are solely responsible for security of company data.
Who can business owners turn to?
As we know cyber criminals can’t be profiled easily. So what can a small business with no IT department and no security budget do to safeguard a business and protect valuable customer data?
The Scottish Business Resilience Centre, supported by Scottish Government and Police Scotland are driving forward support for Scottish businesses in the fight against cybercrime. Find out more at www.sbrcentre.co.uk
At Murrison & Wilson you can be confident we treat the security of our client data as an absolute priority. We researched and invested heavily in accounting, bookkeeping and payroll software that is secure for our clients and ourselves.
Our clients have the freedom to log in anywhere, at any time to check up on company information and are safe in the knowledge their data is safe and secure with:
- Continually monitored security system
- Excellent security standards and encryption, password protected login systems
- No need to worry about back-ups security
Visit <www.muwca.co.uk/index.php to find out more about Kashflow and IRIS for all safe and secure bookkeeping, payroll and accounting software or call us now on 0141 290 0262
Look out for part 2 of our blog: 8 tips to protect your small business from cybercrime without a big IT budget