Five steps for small businesses to knock out cybercrime

Durban - As society continues to digitalise, so do criminals. People love sharing their information online and connecting with the world. This lays the perfect foundation for criminals to pounce on their prey and feast on information to perform criminal acts.

The same applies to businesses. Their websites are vulnerable to activities such as fraud and money laundering.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at cybersecurity company Performanta, Gerhard Swart, said that criminals would use bots to identify security weaknesses. He said that some specialise in breaching while others extract information and extort funds/extract payment from victims.

‘’The most common attitude I encounter at a breached company is 'Why me’? The owners often think it's personal, that they were targeted for specific reasons. There are definitely reasons that make a target more appealing to criminals, but in almost all cases, companies were attacked because their security was lacking. It's as simple as that: the bad guys found a gap and exploited it. So, it's logical to make your business as unattractive a target as possible,’’ says Swart.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) estimates that cybercrime costs the South African economy R2.2 billion annually, much of which is from targeting individuals and small businesses.

Performanta provides five methods that small businesses can use in the fight against cybercrime.

1. Basic cybersecurity training for owners. Owners need to take various courses and acquire knowledge that provides the foundation of cybersecurity fundamentals. They must also check local businesses and professional groups to see if they offer cybersecurity courses or advice.
2. Train staff proactively. If staff are trained, equipped and invested in cybersecurity, then that provides the perfect countermeasure to cybercrime.
3. Have a plan. They say people need to identify their most important assets (such as customer information) and mitigate risks by having backups and procedures to get those assets back online.
4. Establish security basics. Small businesses need to ensure that they have multi-factor authentication and strong passwords, which get changed regularly. They should also ensure that they use anti-virus software and firewalls.
5. Consider Managed Security Services. Purchasing security can be costly, but businesses will get true value for it. They are typically modular and easy to customise, so one can be very specific about where to focus their security priorities and costs. Managed security services are also an excellent way to add security skills to your protection without hiring people internally at a greater cost.

The topic of cybersecurity is an ever-present topic as last week, the Independent On Saturday spoke to various experts as well as society nationwide regarding criminal activity that occurred due to social media. In these cases, examples of identity theft and extortion were raised.

The Independent on Saturday

• ‘Liked’ by the bad guys

• Fake verified Facebook pages luring users into clicking malicious links

• Cybercriminals are becoming highly sophisticated and businesses must keep up

• Investigators warn of fake suicide scams on social media platforms