What cybersecurity risks does remote working pose to small businesses?

The most vulnerable chink in your metaphorical, cybersecurity armour is your employees. In fact, the World Economic Forum reports that 95% of cybersecurity issues can be traced back to human error.

Combine this with remote working, where workers may not have direct contact with you or your cybersecurity systems, and you have a potentially dangerous situation.

So, what are some of the risks your business may face and how can our managed cybersecurity services help protect against it? Read on for the answers to those questions and more.  

Cyberattacks are increasing in volume and sophistication

According to new government statistics, almost a third of businesses suffering from cyberattacks experience at least one attack every week. 40% of businesses in the UK reported at least one cyberattack during 2021, though many more could have fallen victim without their knowledge.

As far back as 2018, specialist insurance provider Hiscox was estimating that UK SMEs were targeted by about 65,000 attempted cyberattacks every single day. At the time, less than 10% of these attempts were successful, but that still resulted in about 4,500 security breaches each day.

With the onset of the pandemic and the widespread introduction of remote working, cyberattacks have increased in popularity and effectiveness. The most popular type of cyberattack is phishing, in which a hacker could learn the necessary usernames and passwords needed to access crucial business information or work.

Remote working means that colleagues now communicate with one another outside of the office. This means that when an employee has a query or needs to have a piece of worked checked, they communicate via messages and emails and save files in a Google Drive or on the Cloud.

While these processes are functionally efficient and effective, this also leaves sensitive information with third party providers, which inherently makes it more vulnerable to attack. If a hacker can gain access to these online folders and storage locations, everything your business does is accessible at the touch of a button.

Your employees are almost always the weakest part of your cyberattack prevention system

No matter your method of preventing cyberattacks, there are always going to be strengths and weaknesses in your defences. In most cases, the biggest threat to your business is employee error.

Through falsified emails, text messages, or other methods of online communication, hackers may attempt to gain your employees’ trust by posing as you or a trusted third party.

Your employees may unwittingly divulge important information to the wrong people or grant access to an important folder or document without knowing. Once this mistake has been made, it’s very difficult to know what the hacker has or hasn’t stolen and could be impossible to fully rectify.

This is because a hacker could make copies of everything stored in that location before the breach is reported or detected. This information could then be sold on the dark web for hundreds of pounds.

Plus, if your business has cyber liability insurance (as it should!), human error could invalidate your insurance policy. This might prevent your business from receiving the pay-out you expect in the event of a cybersecurity breach.

Our managed cybersecurity services help strengthen your vulnerabilities

We are a leading Birmingham IT support provider for small- to medium-sized businesses across the UK, and we recognise the serious risks facing businesses and their cybersecurity. Managed services across the sector fail to consider human error when creating their cyber care plans; we don’t.

In fact, human error and employee training are two of our top priorities when it comes to our cybersecurity package. This helps you relax as you know that your whole team are trained to identify and react accordingly to dangerous situations.

We run regular simulated phishing attacks and act accordingly to the reactions of your employees, identifying the topics and individuals that might need additional training.

However, even if an employee does end up making a costly mistake, we also offer a dark web monitoring service to help locate and identify any compromised details. From there, we can take the necessary steps to help mitigate any further damage and secure your accounts.

As part of our support package, we also offer 24/7 infrastructure monitoring and a managed anti-virus system to help keep your programmes safe and operating at maximum efficiency. It also helps us take a preventative approach to our business IT support, which means we can stop potential problems before they can disrupt your business. For more information on our services or to enquire about how we could help your business, email info@boldit.co.uk or call us on 0121 355 4474.