3 Ways Small Businesses Can Make Big Strides in Cybersecurity

While every business needs technology to grow and succeed, not all businesses have the skills and resources they need to protect their environments, their data and their customers from today’s security threats. Small businesses in particular are at risk as cybercriminals realize both the potential value of the data they have — and how vulnerable they can be to cyberattacks.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports, 60% of small businesses say cybersecurity threats — including phishing, malware and ransomware — are a top concern. Many organizations don’t feel fully prepared to face them: 50% feel “somewhat prepared” and only 23% consider themselves “very prepared,” the data shows.

Our small business customers echo these concerns. An April 2024 TechValidate survey of CrowdStrike Falcon Go customers revealed 90% would be negatively affected by a cyberattack. Their biggest concerns related to cyberattacks include customer data theft (33%), loss in business productivity (31%) and financial loss due to ransomware (19%). Customers also reported a cyberattack would have significant impacts on their business operations: 33% said they would “likely” or “definitely” go out of business if they suffered a breach, and 21% said they would lose customers.

If you aren’t taking steps to strengthen your small business’ cybersecurity posture, now is the time to start. CrowdStrike is here to help protect your small business from advanced adversaries. We’re sharing these tips to help small business owners and employees protect themselves from disruptive and destructive threats.

1. Know you’re a potential target: The media tends to focus on high-profile breaches affecting large enterprises, reinforcing the belief that threat actors primarily target major companies. This is a dangerous assumption for small businesses, which possess many resources adversaries consider valuable: money, customer data, intellectual property (IP) and in some cases, access to bigger victims. A small business can be used as a vector to attack a larger parent organization or the supply chain of a bigger target.
2. Think outside the box: Your out-of-the-box cybersecurity solution may not check the boxes you need it to check. Today’s small businesses must have a range of threats on their radar and invest in a security tool built to face them. An antivirus tool purchased years ago, or the security controls built into your operating system, aren’t equipped to face the ransomware attacks of today.
3. It’s okay to call for help: Strong cybersecurity doesn’t have to be hard. A small business needs an affordably priced solution that can be easily used by non-technical employees to protect against common threats including ransomware, data theft and phishing. If a cyberattack strikes, they need someone they can call to help them navigate the incident response process.

Stay Connected with CrowdStrike to Protect Your Small Business

The fourth and most important step is starting early. Cybersecurity is a major challenge for small businesses, and the consequences of an attack can be devastating — but it is possible to build a robust defense at a reasonable cost.

CrowdStrike Falcon Go checks all the boxes. It provides AI-powered security across your small business to protect against the threats you’re most worried about and a simple, unified interface to monitor device protection and threat activity. In just a few clicks, you can be up and running with Falcon Go, quickly implementing industry-leading protection so you can focus on what matters most: powering your business.

Our April 2024 TechValidate customer survey found small business customers see significant value in the ease of use and reliability of Falcon Go, and are pleased with how it meets their specific needs.

“Falcon Go is super easy to manage and contains many of the tools we need to secure our devices with minimal fuss,” one customer stated.

Try Falcon Go for yourself, and learn how this secure, easy-to-use and affordable cybersecurity solution can protect your small business from attacks.

Additional Resources

• Discover why CrowdStrike Falcon Go is changing the game for small business cybersecurity, as reported in Forbes.
• Learn more about CrowdStrike’s approach to protecting SMBs.
• Test CrowdStrike next-gen antivirus for yourself. Start your 15-day free trial of Falcon Go today.