COVID-19: Small Businesses are More Vulnerable to Cyber Frauds!

The large corporations and multinationals have built robust resilience to cyber frauds, and threats, however small businesses or startups need to pull up their socks and remain wide-awake.

Small businesses contribute immensely to the economic growth of India. Nearly, there are 42.50 million of small businesses in India with the employment opportunity rising by 40%. Thus, the contribution of small businesses is profound.

India experienced a 37% increase in cyberattacks in the Q1 of 2020 as compared to the Q4 of 2019. Moreover, India ranked 27th globally in the number of web threats in the Q1 of 2020. Earlier, in Q4 of 2019, India ranked 32nd globally.

Why are small businesses and startups an easy target for a cyber attack?

  • The pandemic COVID-19 has impacted the economy and businesses globally. In this scenario, the worst affected in these crises are the small businesses and startups as they lack financial resources.
  • It’s a setback for small businesses and startups, due to the rising threat of cyber frauds and data breaches.
  • As enterprises are storing confidential information and data in cloud services, the demand for even more complex security practices and strategies has also increased. Talking about small businesses, they often lack the required resources and security policies to protect themselves against cyber frauds, hence making them easy targets for hackers.
  • The foremost concern for businesses is intellectual property data and security of customer information.
  • Considering threats related to data leakage, targeted ransomware attacks, DDoS attacks, etc., companies will need to allocate their budgets appropriately to build a robust security infrastructure. If your business is facing any specific issue which needs inspection from cyber fraud in Ahmedabad, then Cyberra Legal Services (CLS) is the right place for you.

What can small businesses do to battle against cyber fraud?

  • Small businesses and startups need to embrace the new normal – ‘work from home’ and draw strategies against cyber frauds and data breaches.
  • It is recommended that enterprises should provide laptops or computer devices to employees to work from home. This will assure certain security controls such as anti-virus, security patches, disabling unwanted services/applications etc.
  • Enterprises should make it a compulsion regarding equipment used for the company’s purpose must have anti-malware, firewall software installed and anti-spyware; to catch and eliminate threats that can become troublesome.
  • Cybercriminals are aware of the fact that maximum information is transferred through video conferences and emails. Hence, employees should be educated to stay more alert and report to the system security team if they find anything suspicious.
  • Passwords shouldn’t be kept the same for multiple platforms, and it should be changed often. Also, the use of a password manager is essential to prevent passwords from being leaked while using emails or other complex applications.
  • Businesses should be cautious with sharing financial transactions, and one should not share bank account details, username, password, OTP, PIN, debit or credit card number, CVV and expiry date, etc.

Related blog: WFH is the new normal: What techno-legal practices can enterprises adapt to safeguard themselves from the data breach?

In today’s digital world, cybersecurity is a necessity for any scale organization be it – small, medium and large enterprises. The smaller businesses may be more in risk to cyber attacks as they have fewer resources and less budget. Hence, with the help of a reliable and experienced company, you can safeguard your business from cyber frauds.

We, at Cyberra Legal Services (CLS) specialized in cybersecurity consultancy, cyber law audit and inspection of cyber fraud in Ahmedabad would help in the implementation of the early detection method. This would help small businesses to remain better equipped and take proactive actions while staying a few steps ahead in business operations.

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