5 most likely SME cyber attacks

Cybercrime comes in countless forms, and as the owner of a business, it can be hard to know what you’re even looking out for.

It’s hard to fight an invisible enemy, so here at Fiveways Insurance, we’ve highlighted the five main techniques which threaten small businesses.

Business Email Compromise Schemes

Typically target companies that work with foreign partners and take part in wire transfers. This method sees criminals use executive’s email accounts to instruct employees to send considerable sums of money to hackers’ foreign accounts.

Distributed Denial of Services (DDOS) Attacks

In this scam, hackers bombard websites with network traffic originating from the hacker. It overwhelms the site’s supporting capacity and makes it either very slow or completely unavailable. This prevents clients from reaching the business.

Ransomware

Hackers gain access to your computer and lock or encrypt important files. This method is increasingly popular in the UK. A ransom is demanded in return for the decryption key.

Malvertising

The latest evolution of Malware – which gains access by installing itself on your device when you open an email or click a link – Malvertising is downloaded to your system when you click an affected advert and comprises your computer with malicious code.

Password Attacks

We all know the importance of regularly changing your password. Ensure it uses a combination of characters which makes it difficult to guess. But this attack involves a third-party piggy-backing on your password to gain entry to restricted areas or running software on their own system to guess your password.

Cyber Liability insurance is designed to offer financial assistance if your business suffers as a result of cybercrime or other data breaches. If you have any questions, call our team at Fiveways on 01952 812 380 who will be happy to help.