Sep 19 2022

SMBs are hardest-hit by ransomware

Category: cyber security — DISC @ 8:21 am

Coalition announced the mid-year update to its 2022 Cyber Claims Report detailing the evolution of cyber trends, revealinig that small businesses have become bigger targets, overall incidents are down, and ransomware attacks are declining as demands go unpaid.

SMBs are hardest-hit by ransomware

During the first half of 2022, the average cost of a claim for a small business owner increased to $139,000, which is 58% higher than levels during the first half of 2021.

“Across industries, we continue to see high-profile attacks targeting organizations with weak or exposed infrastructure — which has become exacerbated by today’s remote working culture and companies’ dependence on third-party vendors,” said Catherine Lyle, Coalition’s Head of Claims.

“Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they often lack resources. For these businesses, avoiding downtime and disruption is essential, and they must understand that Active Insurance is accessible.”

The good news: both Coalition and the broader insurance industry observed a decrease in ransomware attack frequency and the amount of ransom demanded between the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022. Ransomware demands decreased from $1.37M in H2 2021 to $896,000 in H1 2022. Of the incidents that resulted in a payment, Coalition negotiated down to roughly 20% of the initial demand.

More good news: Coalition policyholders experienced 50% fewer claims compared to the broader market. The severity of these claims has also declined, with 45% of incidents resolved at no cost. The substantial decrease in overall claims stems from Coalition’s combination of cybersecurity tools, including active monitoring and alerting, access to digital forensics and incident response, and broad insurance coverage.

“Organizations are increasingly aware of the threat ransomware poses. They have started to implement controls such as offline data backups that allow them to refuse to pay the ransom and restore operations through other means,” said Chris Hendricks, Coalition’s Head of Incident Response. “As ransomware is on the decline, attackers are turning to reliable methods. Phishing, for example, has skyrocketed – and only continues to grow.”

Other key findings:

  • Phishing triggers the majority of cyber incidents, accounting for 57.9% of reported claims
  • Cyber gangs have built a thriving business
  • Funds transfer fraud (FTF) claims have held steady thanks to phishing, and
  • Microsoft Exchange has become the vulnerability that persists.

100 dollars

Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses

Tags: Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses, Small and Midsize Businesses, SMB

Jan 11 2022

Small businesses are most vulnerable to growing cybersecurity threats

Category: Cyber Threats — DISC @ 10:50 am
Small businesses are most vulnerable to growing cybersecurity threats

While protecting digital resources may be easy for large companies that can afford to hire in-house cybersecurity staff and establish threat monitoring and endpoint detection infrastructure, this endeavor can often seem impossible for SMBs. All the while, the dangers for smaller businesses could not be more acute, especially since the businesses’ operators and employees are often uninformed about common cybersecurity threats.

By understanding the threats they face and implementing a few relatively low-effort but highly effective protection measures, SMBs can leap into the next phase of growth with their digital assets secured.

Unique threats to SMBs

The scope of cybersecurity threats to small companies is no less varied than the threats large multinational corporations face, but SMBs’ size and lack of infrastructure often leaves them more vulnerable to targeted hacking schemes and threats. Hackers often opt for schemes that require less preparation and risk and find easier targets in SMBs.

One major vulnerability is the disadvantage SMBs face because they often do not control every aspect of their supply chain. A bad actor can conduct a software supply chain hack, isolating smaller vendors and suppliers as weak points with little to no cybersecurity protection, forcing them to unwittingly pass on malware that can disable an entire chain of businesses. SMBs in the logistics and operations industries are particularly vulnerable targets since they are connected to many other companies and will likely be more willing to pay the ransom to quickly resume operations at 100% capacity.

In addition, an entirely new slew of cyber threats has cropped up along with the hybrid work model. In a rush to digitize at the start of the pandemic, many SMBs relied on single systems that they perceived to be safe, including migrating their files and processes to the cloud. They hoped that the cloud’s decentralized nature would prevent them from being victimized by cyber attackers. However, even cloud software providers can be infiltrated, as all it takes is one bug to create a vulnerability. Yet most SMBs fail to acknowledge the new vulnerabilities remote work creates and are now even more vulnerable since they are complacently conducting business through unsecured systems.

All these threats represent a growing danger to SMBs’ success – and some SMBs are more vulnerable than others. Many of the industries (e.g., agriculture) that never thought they would be targeted and therefore eschewed any type of basic cybersecurity are years behind in their cyber protection measures.

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Regulations add another complication

Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses

Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses by [Marlon Bermudez]

Tags: Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses, Cybersecurity for SMBs, SMB