As a small business, you actually have a lot of advantages over the “Big Guys.” You’re smaller and more nimble, so you can offer more personalized service. However, when it comes to data breaches, you are at a serious disadvantage.
In fact, 60% of small businesses have to declare bankruptcy after getting hacked and most have to close their doors forever.
Big name brands are a bigger target for hackers. But, small businesses are still the victims of about 43% of cyber attacks and they often feel the impact on a disastrous level.
Here’s why.
Less Budget for Secure Data Storage
If you’re a SaaS or eCommerce start-up, you’re probably running as financially lean as possible in the early years. That means you may be storing your sensitive customer data on site. If this is the case, you should really explore your data center sourcing options to protect your data.
Nearly 70% of SMBs will experience some sort of cyber attack at some point, but less than 30% rate their ability to mitigate threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks as “highly effective.” Many of them plan to increase their protection once they reach a certain level of revenue. However, they may be better off investing heavily in security to protect their ability to earn that revenue.
This data is too important to take chances with. Trust a data center with top of the line security measures in place. It’s your most important asset, so protect it!
Fewer Resources for Crisis Management
When Amazon gets hacked (and they do), they have a fleet of customer service agents manning their phone lines, inboxes and social media channels. These agents have approved scripts and are ready to handle the influx of disgruntled customers that want to know what happened and how it impacts them.
You do not have this.
In the event of a hack, you will likely have to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to managing the crisis, dealing with customers, and saving your reputation.
Too often, the damage to the brand name is catastrophic and most small businesses simply cannot recover.
Major Brands Have More Money to Say “We’re Sorry”
Billion-dollar companies can afford to do more as a way of apologizing to customers and offer a gesture to keep their business.
They’re in a position to offer up things like 2 gigs of free data, or 2 free months of service, or a discount for a year. However, small businesses likely have razor thin margins. Offering something like that to their customers could bankrupt them. And too often, it does.
Irreparable Damage to Their Reputation
Larger companies can mitigate the damage to their reputation because:
- They have a more established name
- They have the resources to invest in reputation management
Less established companies have a much smaller web footprint. This means a hack is far more likely to show up on the front page of a Google search for the company name, which is an immediate red flag and deterrent for future customers.
As you can see, there is a lot more at stake when it comes to data protection for small businesses. Startups and SMBs are just as likely to get hacked, while they lack the resources to rebuild their reputation or customer-base.
Your best bet is to always take this as seriously as possible, before a single hacker closes your doors forever.
