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Cybersecurity experts are warning that small businesses are fast becoming the favorite target of cybercriminals.
“SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) have not historically been the target of cybercrime but in 2015 something drastically changed,” Toni Allen, UK head of client propositions at the British Standards Institute (BSI), told The Guardian.
More than half (52.4%) of spear phishing attacks carried out using fake emails in December 2015 were against SMEs, according to the latest statistics released by cybersecurity firm Symantec.
“SMEs are being viewed as a softer target by criminals, and are often a route to a ‘bigger prize’ if they are contracting with larger organizations, who may be harder to penetrate directly,” said Stephen Ridley, acting head of technology, cyber and data for insurance company Hiscox UK and Ireland.
Ridley says many SMEs still have much to do in order to protect themselves including educating staff on cyber-risks and installing antivirus and malware software on all company devices.
