The Cybersecurity Risk To Small-To Medium Sized Businesses
Resources Remain Scarce, Cyber Threats Are Constant

Article by Cytellix

Let's be honest, cybersecurity is the trending code word for robbers. The statistics show the small and mid-size business market has not been able to track the constant system upgrades, moves and changes. 60% of the businesses will experience losses significant enough to drive them out of business within six months. Limited budgets and cyber resources in IT have prevented business owners from protecting their infrastructure. The awareness of the devices (IoT) on networks is almost nonexistent. New requirements for Cyber Security Compliance and Policies has rolled out to many industries, and more to come.

Who is affected?

The industries most open to cyber-attack are healthcare, IoT, manufacturing and financial services.
• Healthcare: A study revealed that in 2015, 47% of the U.S. population had their personal healthcare data compromised, estimated to rise
• IoT: The number of smart connections is estimated to grow to 20 billion by 2020, making a much larger cyber threat landscape
• Manufacturing: Federal government has issued cybersecurity regulations for supply chain providers under the DFARS 252.204-7012 and NIST 800-171 for cyber compliance to do business on government contracts
• Financial Services: Third most targeted industry with a big spend, but still scramble to stay ahead of cyber criminals

How can you as a SMB owner prepare?

Understand – There is always a Gap in Network Visibility and you have no idea what information the hackers value
Vulnerability Assessment & Gap Analysis
If we knew everything about everything, life in general would be easy. Same applies to our network connections. If all SMB owners knew all the connections both internally and internally, identifying when a change may happen would be ideal to prevent breaches. A vulnerability assessment is the first step in securing a network to list out the valuable assets within an organization. The assessment identifies all of the connections tied to a network and the layers in between

Understand – Cyber security is not a point in time, but rather it's ever changing
Continuous Monitoring
It's great to know what you know when you know it. If it were our choice, we would not want to be blindsided with new changes. Vulnerabilities in our network infrastructure is just that, changes. SMB owners are busy running their businesses and in most cases, do not have the time to drill into minute details. Continuous monitoring of the network is critical in identifying behavioral changes, which can lead to a hack. This level of monitoring allows for constant notifications of suspicious activity.

Understand – The Difference between Knowing and Doing
Remediation & Implementation
If SMB's had the financial resources to invest into high quality solutions, they would. Unfortunately, budgets are restricted and other priorities arise. Being able to simply follow some cybersecurity best practices is always a good start for the market. Once the assessment is completed, hand-picking the critical items that are potentially damaging to an organization should be implemented. Proactive SMBs – keen on expert, outside assistance – will be able to effectively keep their company, employees, assets and customers secure.

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ABOUT CYTELLIX: Cytellix, the cybersecurity division of Information Management Resources, Inc. (IMRI), is an industry-standards-based, managed cybersecurity service provider, specializing in proactive behavioral analytics and situational awareness of an organization's cyber posture. Cytellix has created an affordable outsourced solution for small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) – which have become one of the largest targets of cyberattacks in recent years – and its solutions have monitored over 7 million devices thus far. Its best-in-class, turnkey service was designed to help SMBs in government, manufacturing, finance, banking, law, healthcare and higher education sectors take a proactive, low-friction approach to securing their environment. The managed service includes assessments, gap analysis, continuous monitoring, practical plans of action, and customized best practices for remediation and implementation. Cytellix has not only successfully secured the network perimeters for the U.S. Army, Missile Defense Agency and municipal organizations such as the City of Irvine, but its proactive solution has also been deployed at leading corporations, including: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kaiser Permanente and the Walt Disney Company. The Company has been recognized with numerous honors such as the 2017 American Business Award, the 2016 Small Business Administration Person of the Year award, the 2015 Patriot Award and the 2014 White House Champion of Change Honor; and its experts are frequently tapped for media interviews and keynote addresses by publications such as CNET and The Huffington Post. For more information, please visit www.cytellix.com.