Cyberattacks on small businesses continue to rise: Are you protected?

More than ever before, cybercrooks are now targeting medium and small businesses. It’s not just the blue chip companies or governments that are under fire. It’s now startups and small businesses of all stripes – retail shops, leisure activity businesses, hotels, health clinics, and even colleges are getting hammered by cybercriminals. And it’s pushing many entrepreneurs to the verge of bankruptcy.

These businesses may feel that they aren’t likely to be a target due to their size and that hackers couldn’t possibly be interested in what they do – but in reality the exact opposite is true. There is a growing need for security in small and medium-sized businesses. According to a survey conducted by Ponemon Institute for businesses with less than 1000 employees, 55% experienced a cyber-attack in the last year. However recovery from cyberattacks in many cases was slow and expensive.

Hackers prey on the knowledge that small businesses tend to have lower defenses than larger organizations, usually due to lack of financial and human resources. By their very nature, thriving small businesses are innovative and niche, which again is very attractive to the bad guys who may be interested in customer data and intellectual property and know exactly how to pick out the weak targets.

Companies of any size can be targeted by cybercriminals in today’s Internet-connected world.

Despite the rising vulnerability to cybersecurity breaches, a lack of awareness and high investment costs remain the two immense challenges faced by small and medium enterprises.

With the launch of Cisco Stealthwatch Cloud, small and medium enterprises can breathe a sigh of relief against cyberattacks.

Stealthwatch Cloud is a simple, automated and cost-effective solution for small businesses.

Stealthwatch Cloud provides its threat detection capabilities by way of actionable security alerts supplied with their supporting observation information. Details that are necessary to mitigate different kinds of malicious activities in real time – with minimal configuration or management. You can quickly respond before a security incident becomes a devastating breach.

With Stealthwatch Cloud, you can detect external and internal threats across your environment, from the private network to the branch office to the public cloud with no specialized hardware to purchase, no software agents to deploy, no expertise required.

Stealthwatch Cloud is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution delivered from the cloud, which means management is a breeze and there is no need for messy software patches.

Stealthwatch Cloud provides a stronger security posture with an automated platform to rapidly identify compromised and misused devices, facilitate faster remediation, and reduce the risk and cost associated with breaches.

Through machine learning, it models data from endpoints and network entities in real-time to significantly reduce the number of false positives. In fact, customers report 96 percent of Stealthwatch Cloud alerts as ‘helpful.’ These accurate, automated alerts help you protect your environment without wasting valuable time better spent growing your business.

Try this super cool security solution today with a free trial. To learn more, visit the Stealthwatch Cloud product page or contact your local Cisco account representative.