Last year saw a number of high-profile thefts of payment data from major companies and banks, but research shows that smaller firms are hardest hit.
A severe attack typically leaves small and mid-sized companies £65,000-£115,000 out of pocket, according to research by PwC, and the worst-hit firms report up to six security breaches a year. While a bigger business may be equipped to absorb the financial blow, for an SME, costs of this magnitude can quickly spell the end.
Despite this, many smaller companies tend to neglect their security measures as they focus their energies on core commercial activity, say experts.
“They are exposed to many of the same attacks as much larger enterprises, yet they don’t have the security expertise and resources available to those larger firms,” Maxim Weinstein, a security advisor at Sophos, told the BBC.
Worse, as companies increasingly embrace internet-based technologies and payment systems to boost their business, their security expertise struggles to keep up.
“There are some businesses that are much more than just users of technology,” said Weinstein. “They have huge computing requirements as well as massive storage and bandwidth requirements – far more than their head count would suggest.”
“In the same way they don’t run your own bank or accountancy firm they shouldn’t run their own security operation,” he warned.
250,000 new viruses are released everyday by hackers and attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated. The biggest breaches of 2014 included customer payment data stolen from POS devices at Dairy Queen outlets and from the internal servers at Target, a major department store chain.
Related reading
JP Morgan creates crypto for international settlements
US bank JP Morgan announced this week that it would be launching its own cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, claiming to be the first ... read more
Regulatory “weathervanes” to prove blockchain’s maturity
Small jurisdictions like the Isle of Man are being used as proving grounds for the maturity of blockchain, an opportunity they can ... read more
Barclaycard & Guess contactless watch: a review | video
Barclaycard's step into wearables market takes shape with high end watch
Report: DLT, SWIFT gpi, Ripple and cryptos shape payments
The greatest impact of blockchain on payments is the acceleration of SWIFT gpi, according to Ed Adshead-Grant, general manager of payments, at ... read more
