“... America’s 28 million small businesses, which create two out of every three new jobs in the U.S., are especially at risk. Small employers are quickly becoming a larger target for criminals looking to access sensitive data because small businesses typically have limited resources for information systems security,” SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet said in the announcement.
The tools to help protect businesses can be found at sba.gov/cybersecurity. Among the offerings are how-to’s on protecting against viruses, spyware and other malicious code; educating employees about cyberthreats; safeguarding Internet connections through firewalls and other encrypting information; and best practices on payment cards, including the shift to more secure credit card payment technology.
According to the announcement, a 2013 survey showed 44 percent of small businesses reported being the victim of a cyberattack. The attacks came with an average cost of $9,000 per incident.
©2015 Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (Walla Walla, Wash.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
