SMB blind spots revealed

Symantec says that small businesses can easily convince themselves that cybercriminals only go after the big guys.

The firm warns that the majority of cybercriminals throw their nets wide and take advantage of whatever victims they can land, which also means small businesses.

Detailed below are three “SMB blind spots” to look out for.

Steal all the money in your bank account: Banking TrojansOne of the most prevalent cyber attack toolkits called “Zeus” is widely used to steal bank account credentials. Most cybercriminals using Zeus just go after a victim’s banking login and password. This is the most lucrative crime and unfortunately the most lucrative victim is small business. Why? A small business generally has more money in its accounts than a consumer. However, unlike a consumer, the small business has fewer safeguards in place to guard its financial transactions.  Steal your intellectual property and customer information: Security BreachWhen valuable data has been lost or stolen, the security industry calls this a breach. And, while hackers are responsible for most credit card information being stolen, SMBs must be very careful with how they handle and process customers’ as well as their own financial data. According to the recent APJ 2010 SMB Information Protection Survey, 76 percent of SMBs in APJ are somewhat/extremely concerned about the loss of crucial business information. This does not come as a surprise, considering 58 percent have actually lost confidential or proprietary electronic information in the past. Drive your customers away: Brand ReputationSmall businesses are finding that social networking and other Web 2.0 solutions are an ideal way to find and keep customers. Unfortunately, it can go terribly wrong if a criminal hijacks the social networking accounts. Why? The criminals can use small business accounts to run scams, send spam and infect users with malware. More information can be found on Symantec’s Security Response blog.