The old Mad Magazine aphorism – What me, worry? – summarizes the approach many organizational leaders take when it comes to small business IT. Consulting experts can vouch for the fact that few SMB leaders actually insist on formal IT security protection. Yet, as we explain below, there are several very good reasons why small and medium-sized businesses should adopt strong security for their IT systems.
Why it’s important to have IT protection for your small business
IT consulting experts provide these and other reasons for maintaining strong IT security in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Criminal entrepreneurs, or “crimpreneurs,” don’t discriminate between large, medium, and small businesses.
In the ’80s, hackers were young, bright engineers with a future and an eye for mischief. Today, hackers are included in some of the largest white-collar criminal syndicates and some of the most pervasive criminal entrepreneurs in the world. Industry experts and research firms quickly highlight that computer hackers don’t exclusively target large enterprises. Sure, now and then a unified group of crimpreneurs will come together in a cause to take down a giant name. We hear about these attacks because they make a “stickier” news report, but as technology consulting firms know, the truth is that most hacking jobs are indiscriminate as far as company size is concerned.
Crimpreneurs simply want to attack people who are digitally connected to many other people, so their malware programs can spread to many machines. In this era of instant information sharing via Facebook, intranets, and X, even sole proprietors and two-person companies are therefore susceptible to hacking.
Security breaches cost small businesses more money and now crimpreneurs are adding a new layer.
According to Sophos, in addition to the cost of a breach increasing crimpreneurs are turning the screws with new methods. Not content with just funds, these organizations are reporting their victims to regulatory agencies in some cases. In other cases, they are “… weaponizing legislation or encouraging secondary victims of their attacks – such as clients, customers, and employees – to launch lawsuits, in order to increase pressure on targeted organizations. However, we’ve seen several recent examples of this.”
Below is an example of how the criminals are targeting CPA’s and Accounting firms that deal with tax returns. 
So, any concern that a small practice is not a target has evaporated. In the Sophos report they share that this is a change that has taken hold in the last three years.
You can enjoy a competitive advantage with proper security systems.
There are two places to invest in cybersecurity as CSO Online states; “Cybersecurity has become a high-stakes balancing act — the modern CISO is under constant pressure to protect their organization from the latest threats, including ransomware and phishing, while also developing long-term security strategies…” Working with your IT services provider makes this planning easier and more predictable. For example, changing your domain to .cpa is a long-term strategic solution, and setting hardware-based multifactor authentication is something that should already be in place.
Lead IT Consulting can help guide and support a balanced approach to all cybersecurity and support needs. Just visit CPAs | Lead I.T. Consulting (leaditconsulting.net) to see how we can help you with CPA-specific IT services. You can also check out our full range of IT services, book a meeting with the author to discuss your IT situation, or complete a contact form and let us know how we might help.
