One of the ironies of the current cybersecurity crisis is that those businesses that are in greatest need of strong cybersecurity protocols and reliable encryption tools are often the least likely to have them.
While cybercrime affects businesses of all sizes, larger firms and corporations generally have a greater capacity to bounce back from data breaches and hacks. Consider the infamous Dropbox data breach of 2012, which leaked details from more than sixty-eight million user accounts; while Dropbox certainly lost clients and had to invest significant resources in damage control, the company is still afloat. Small businesses, on the other hand, are much more likely to fold.
Recent data confirms this. Small business was the target of fifty-five percent of the cyberattacks that occurred in 2016, and by 2017 that number had risen to sixty-one percent. And an estimated sixty percent of the businesses hit with a cyber attack went out of business within six months.
These numbers clearly show not only that small businesses are at risk, but also that many of them do not realize just how devastating a cyber attack can be. So what kind of cybersecurity tools should small businesses adopt if they want to protect themselves?
In order to answer this question, it is important to understand the different vectors cybercriminals use to launch their attacks. While many companies use IT tools like firewalls and encrypt or store their data in the cloud, communications — and specifically email and SMS communications — continue to be the weak point that most cybercriminals target first.
Given that these communication tools are absolutely essential for conducting business in the modern world, how can you keep your business texts safe without slowing down communications or reducing the efficiency of your workplace? For many companies, the most reliable solution is an encrypted smartphone.
Most business communication now happens through mobile devices that are used for a variety of different purposes. Many workers use the same phone to send business emails, read documents, surf the web, and even play games.
Each of these features opens the phone up to malicious attacks through malware or spyware, so the first thing you need to do if you want to establish secure end-to-end communication is making sure the phones your employees are using are only for work and are only used for communications purposes.
The second thing you need to do is make sure these phones are protected by sophisticated encryption software that allows them to send chat messages, voice messages, and images, and to communicate with a wide range of other encrypted devices. For example, ChatMail Secure provides one of the leading encryption protocols, and their encrypted smartphones are not only easy to use, but they are also tamper-proof and completely secure.
Every year, small businesses are forced to close their doors following crippling cyber attacks. While awareness about the dangers of cybercrime is growing, many companies still don’t have the tools the need to provide adequate protection for their communications.
Because encrypted smartphones are the only way to guarantee that no one else can access the information you send, they offer the gold standard for ensuring secure end-to-end communications.
