Small to medium sized businesses face unique threats in the current threat landscape. Often understaffed, under resourced, and stringently budgeted, SMBs are forced to defend against enterprise level threats daily with little support. These businesses make up 50% of the global gross domestic product, and frequently partner with the federal government and larger organizations to do business. Needless to say, this attack surface is large and cyber criminals are finding these small businesses to be lucrative targets and enticing footholds into larger systems. This is why it is important to understand and keep up to date on the threats that SMBs will continue to face in the coming years. Fortunately, Kaspersky has released their 2023 SMB threat report to highlight key statistics in the space. Here are several takeaways that SMBs should keep in mind.
Malware is On the Rise
Malicious software comes in a variety of different forms ranging from Trojans to backdoors, to seemingly innocuous spyware. In the first 5 months of 2023, Kaspersky found that 764,015 malicious files had been encountered through various applications and software. From this total, 664,531 of these files were identified as exploits: malicious software that infiltrates a host in order to run commands, elevate privileges, and install more malware. This is a sharp increase from 2022 in which the total number of exploits discovered by Kaspersky equaled 483,980.
In addition to exploits, other attack vectors including Trojans, backdoors, and worms have also increased.
B2B Phishing Scams
Social engineering and phishing scams will always be a threat to any organizations cyber security, and with generative AI making it easy to craft and automate scam emails, we'll only see a rise in volume. Other forms of social engineering including smishing, a form of SMS message phishing, and website impersonation are extremely common. Cyber criminals will create fake websites impersonating a trusted brand or company including online banking, insurance, and delivery companies. Kaspersky has realized that SMB employees are often targeted by spam campaigns claiming to come from B2B services like SEO, advertising or marketing agencies. According to Kaspersky, these scammers will send multiple emails regardless of whether or not they receive a response.
Qbot Trojan and Conversation Hijacking
Kaspersky researchers recently discovered a new campaign that uses "conversation hijacking" as a way to infiltrate an organization. In this technique, attackers will gain access to a victims email account and pose as a respondent to a preexisting email exchange. Because the victim still thinks they are talking to the real recipient, they are more likely to click on or open a link or PDF containing malware. Kaspersky has uncovered that the Qbot Trojan is then downloaded into the victims system.
What Should You Do?
The easiest steps your business can take to protect its IT and business assets are also some of the most practical. Enforcing complex password polices alongside MFA is a crucial part of securing business applications and tools. Additionally, having employees undergo consistent security awareness training can help inform users of the risks and threats that they may face on the internet. All of these are foundational for a comprehensive security plan, but in many cases a qualified managed service provider (MSP) can help.
CorpInfoTech provides an array of services to SMBs looking to bolster their security posture including firewall management, vulnerability scanning, security assessments, and managed IT assistance. We provide enterprise level tools for SMBs in order to empower them to protect their business!
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CorpInfoTech (Corporate Information Technologies) provides small to mid-market organizations with expert I.T. services including compliance assessment, cybersecurity penetration tests, and comprehensive business continuity planning services. CorpInfoTech can help organizations, quantify, create, refine, and mitigate the risks presented by business threatening disasters in whatever form they may be disguised.
