Local businesses are the backbone of the UK economy and companies with under 250 employees make up 99.9% of all businesses (some 5.7 million of them). More significantly, micro businesses (under 10 employees) account for 96% of these. 

With many small businesses carving their niche in the online space and selling their goods and services via their own e-commerce sites, it’s never been more important for local business owners to ensure their company is protected against cybercrime as customers want to be reassured that the data they share is safe.  

But when local business owners are busy running their businesses, warnings about cyber threats are often ignored as the “it won’t happen to me” mindset rules and the everyday duties of running their business take priority.  

It’s akin to the imagery and stats used on cigarette packets to deter smokers. They don’t work. However, when a smoker is diagnosed with a smoking related illness, the situation becomes personal and very often their attention is focused on quitting. 

Likewise, with cyber. Once it becomes personal (after a cyber attack or an attempted one), local business owners are forced to pay attention.

The Dark Web  

The fact is, for the majority of us, our data has already been stolen and is for sale on the dark web. Enormous amounts of data have been acquired in infamous breaches from the likes of Yahoo, Equifax, LinkedIn, BUPA, Three, Talk Talk and Sports Direct. 

Hackers use stolen email and password combinations on a range of sites to commit cybercrime. They do this by utilizing credential stuffing attacks which use bots to automatically test millions of email and password combinations on a whole range of website login pages. And, most concerningly, even when passwords employ protective hashing, hackers are able to crack them and are able to see them in plain text. 

Our dark web search and monitoring tools help local businesses to immediately see if their data has been stolen and we can then work with them to bolster their defences and plug any holes in their IT infrastructure to ensure they don’t become a victim of a cyber attack. 

We help local business owners across Yorkshire and beyond understand the risks to their business from cyber threats. We give them peace of mind by running a free dark web search to check if their data is already for sale on the dark web and help them take steps to prevent it being used against them. 

If you’re worried your business might be at risk from a cyber attack, get in touch right away – call 0333 772 0512 or email help@sodait.co.uk.

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