The Benefits of Managed Cyber-Security

The Benefits of Managed Cyber-Security

You’d have to have had your head stuck in the sand for the past year to not notice the amount of cyber-security breaches that are occurring. The cyber-security industry is growing and attacks are at an all-time high.

Quick Statistics:
-Currently, 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium sized organizations (Symantec).
-For most of these businesses, it took 170 days to detect a malicious or criminal attack (Ponemon).
-60% of businesses close within six months of experiencing a cyber breach (National Cyber Security Alliance).
So why do so many businesses continue to ignore their cyber-security?

For most, it comes down to their budget. Many employees in small businesses wear several ‘hats’ and are involved with numerous departments at their job. If most small businesses can’t hire an IT staff, it’s safe to say that a cyber-security professional is definitely out of the question. For many of these businesses, they haven’t even thought about an incident response plan for these attacks. These businesses don’t know what they’ll do, who they’ll contact, or how they’ll tell their customers when it happens to them.
Axiom Cyber Solutions wants to help keep you and your business secure. For $199 a month, Axiom will manage your business’ cyber-security. We believe the benefits to managed cyber-security is well worth it, in order to keep your business and clients safe and secure.

Here are 4 major benefits to managed cyber-security.

1. Protecting your business means protecting your data: All businesses should have anti-virus software but in the world of ever evolving cyber threats, it simply is not enough to only have anti-virus software. Each Axiom managed cyber-security package comes with: An Axiom Sentry Firewall managed by Cyber-Security Experts, Automatic Firmware & Security Updates, Threat Detection, Threat Prevention, Real-time Alerting & Monitoring, Denial of Service Protection, Advanced Ransomware Protection, Monthly Reporting and 24/7 Support

2. By spending $199 a month, you have the peace of mind that your network is being monitored with state of the art equipment. With our real time alerting, you will not have to wait 170 days to discover your network has been maliciously attacked. Leave it to our experts to help keep you secure.

3. If your business is protected, your organization’s reputation will not be hurt. One negative story about your business in the news will scare potential clients and your current clients. No one wants to do business with a company who doesn’t care about their clients and by having managed cyber-security, you are protecting your client’s most valuable data.

4. Do you want to have to report to the FTC daily? Save yourself from being hit with fines and audits, otherwise the FTC can fine a company that has not sufficiently protected their data against a breach. The FTC will require a company to undergo 20 years of security audits if they are found negligent. Having firewalls and intrusion detection mechanisms in place to prohibit cyber criminals from gaining access to your network is key to avoiding the potential fallout you’ll have to deal with.

How can we help your small business?
Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own. Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business.
Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, check out our website at axiomcyber.com or give us a call us at (800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

Hackers are Targeting Small Business

Hackers are Targeting Small Business

“60% of businesses close within six months of a cyber attack.”  (The National Cyber Security Alliance)

What side of that statistic do you think your business would fall on?

Do you believe you’re immune from hackers because you’re nowhere near as well-known as Anthem or eBay? You are dead wrong. Smaller businesses do not have the same cyber security resources as larger businesses and hackers are banking on the fact that you are ignoring your cyber security. As a small business, you are a more attractive target because you are more likely to be less secure. Thanks to automation, cyber criminals are mass producing their attacks with numbers in the thousands with little to no investment.

It’s all over the news and almost impossible to escape from. Every day a new story pops up about a data breach or cyber crime. Corporations worldwide are beefing up their cyber security. It is not only the retail and financial organizations, the Pentagon is also following in their footsteps to protect their data.

Cybercrime has cost the US economy $100bn a year, worldwide that total goes up to $300bn annually, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In fact, McAfee found that almost 90% of small and medium sized business in the US do not use any data protection for their company and customer information. Less than half secured company emails to prevent phishing scams. Where does that leave the hackers? It leaves them to focus on you.

Despite the growing number of cyber crimes, many small business owners believe that hackers will not waste their time on small business. However, hackers are stealing enormous amounts of cash from small businesses and because these are small businesses, they do not get anywhere near the amount of news coverage like a Target or Sony would get. Most of these cyber crimes occur before the business owner can even realize their security has been compromised. The loss of customer data will change how your customers view you and these security threats are not going away anytime soon.

For small business owners, being proactive is an absolute must. Just like in football, your best defense is good offense. Otherwise, the fallout from a data breach can be astounding. You do not want to wait until your data is being held ransom before you think about cyber security. Otherwise, you will face quite the fallout from a breach.

Not only will you have to pay fines and penalties, you will have to conduct a forensic investigation and a PCI assessment. A small business will lose their reputation and lose the faith of their customers. Punishment will come in many shapes and sizes. You may not be able to continue to take credit card payments once a cyber breach has occurred, many merchants will suspend your account once this has occurred. Your payment processor may impose stricter PCI requirements and compliance which of course means it will cost you more money to continue to do business. Anti-virus and anti-malware can only protect a single computer from an attack. It does not protect your network hardware from attempted breaches. You need a good firewall and transport security in conjunction with updated virus and malware protection.

How can Axiom Cyber Solutions help secure a small business?

Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own. Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business.

Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, give us a call us at (800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

Why SMBs Should Pay More Attention to Their Cyber Security

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) assume that they are immune to cyber attacks and cyber crimes because they are not necessarily high profile targets. In recent headlines, big corporations such as Target, Sony, and JPMorgan Chase are experiencing very serious data breaches and losing large amounts of money due to cyber crimes and data breaches.

Although you often see these big corporations plastered in the news when they experience cyber attacks, smaller organizations do not attract as much attention in the media. That, however, does not mean that they are not victimized. In fact, 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium-sized businesses, according to Symantec’s 2015 Internet Security Threat Report.

According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, one in five small businesses experience a cybercrime each year and 60% of those small businesses go out of business within 6 months after a cyber attack.

Experts agree that smaller businesses are much more vulnerable and attractive to cyber criminals because they are often less secure. Also, thanks to automation, these cyber criminals have the ability to mass produce attacks.

Greg Shannon, chief scientist at the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon, states that size is “somewhat of a red herring. It’s more about scale.” But, he adds that, “small business is a huge target because attacks are automated. The criminals don’t care who they’re attacking, and while any given business isn’t worth much, they have viruses or ransomware that allow them to attack thousands or millions.”

These automated attacks are especially damaging for SMBs because many of these small business owners don’t believe they will be hacked when up against the thousands of other businesses out there. Today, hackers aren’t wasting their time to pick and choose what businesses they want to attack, it’s all taken care of with automation.

One of the most common issues that affect the quality of security in SMBs is budgetary constraints. Since many of these businesses do not have a dedicated IT team, business owners are handling their own cybersecurity matters. They may be struggling to keep their businesses profitable and do not see an immediate need to expend resources on cyber-security, especially if they do not rely on online applications. This ideology has to change as the volume and scale of cyber attacks grow exponentially.

We at Axiom Cyber Solutions understand these concerns and want to encourage businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller organizations, that the need for proper cyber security should be on the forefront of your strategic vision.#FightBackWithAxiom