Don't think you're a lower hacking risk because you're a small company

It seems strange to us that when speaking to small businesses about website security, a lot of them respond that they're only a small company so they're not much of a target.

It's ironic because, if anything, the reverse is true. Small companies are an even bigger target than bigger companies.

Big companies know they're at risk (usually), so they take precautions.

They don't always take all the precautions necessary, as many high profile cases in the media have shown, but they've usually got the basics covered.

Small Businesses

Small companies on the other hand tend to think that they're not much of a target, so they don't take as many precautions and don't have as many security procedures in place.

Most small businesses have their website and emails hosted with a small local web design company that doesn't usually have the first idea about basic security measures.

Most small business websites are dead easy to hack into because their clueless web designer doesn't manage the security effectively.

The hackers know all this!

It is much easier for a hacker to spend 2 hours hacking into 10 small business websites than it is to spend 2 days trying to hack into a single business 10 times bigger with much better security procedures.

Most hackers are just after the easy wins.

So what!?

"But what can they get from me? I don't have an online shop."

This is another common myth.

Hackers aren't just trying to get into ecommerce websites.

They're after anything they can get. Such as your data.

There's a surprising amount of data stored in your email history. They could use this for identity fraud. Or they could use it to hold you to ransom.

At the very least, they could manipulate your website to damage your reputation. Or demand a ransom not to do it.

And a lot of hackers aren't after anything. They just enjoy the thrill of the damage they are causing. They're just vandals.

How to protect yourself

At this point I should stress that is not possible to be 100% secure from hackers, as a lot of the high profile cases have demonstrated.

But it's incredibly easy to defend yourself from the 90% of hackers that are just after the easy targets.

We are regularly called upon to rescue hacked websites that would have been easily prevented by a competent web developer.

OpenGlobal are IT professionals. We have systematic procedures in place to cover all of the basic security measures that our competitors usually neglect. Contact us now on 0845 269 9624 to find out how much more secure your website could be.