Attacking The SMB
With more cybercrime organizations creating malware at breakneck speeds, businesses can only expect to see their networks afflicted with more security breaches.
Yet, as enterprises build up their security environments, cybercriminals are now looking elsewhere for easier targets. Those who will likely be most at risk will be the small business and midmarket segments—companies with fewer or limited resources and outdated or inadequate security infrastructures. And while many SMBs may not have heard of the Russian Business Network, many undoubtedly will feel the ill effects of malware distributed via the Web.
"When it comes to vulnerability management, smaller firms have a bigger challenge," said Nic Alicandri, managing director at New York-based information security firm CipherTechs Inc.
Security experts have begun warning companies that the threat is definitely growing. A July McAfee study, "Does Size Matter? The Security Challenge of the SMB," found that one in five small businesses have suffered a security attack, with a third of those suffering more than four IT breaches in the past three years. One in five respondents said that a security attack could put them out of business. Additionally, the 10th Annual CSI/FBI survey released last October found that U.S. businesses lost an average of $350,424 in 2007 as a result of cybersecurity incidents—a number that more than doubled from losses incurred from 2006.
"I think that the people that think because they're not a household name, they're not going to be an attack target [are] going to be mistaken," said Ken Phelan, chief technology officer for Gotham Technology Group, a Montvale, N.J.-based IT consulting VAR, with specialties in access management and information security.
Phelan said that one of his SMB clients with fewer than 100 people was given a sheaf of confidential company data that was lifted from the company. The client was told they needed to pay the attacker, or run the risk of losing the information to their competitors.
Gotham Technology points SMB customers to pre-existing regulatory security solutions, such as those outlined by Payment Card Industry standards, Phelan said. Among other things, PCI standards recommend that all businesses encrypt data, authenticate users and secure networks with an array of endpoint protection software.
SMB company networks "are being pounded," and "a lot of them don't even know it's happening," said Stephen Nacci, regional account manager for TLIC Worldwide Inc., an Exeter, R.I.-based VAR specializing in security solutions and network management.
Nacci recommends that his clients extend their security solutions beyond the perimeter.
"(SMBs) are getting killed. These guys are bleeding and they don't
even know it," Nacci said. "We need to counter that."