Cybercrime costs the global economy $445-billion annually, and cyber espionage and stealing personal information is believed to have affected more than 800-million people during 2013.
Although the perception of the risk of cybercrime is increasing (9% from 38% in 2011 to 48% in 2014) according to PwC, few SMEs have implemented the right technology to prevent cyber-attacks.
Henk Olivier of Johannesburg-based Osone IT says of the findings: “Although there is an awareness of cybercrime, few SMEs in South Africa have the right tech in place to prevent an attack. Many entrepreneurs do not truly understand the capabilities of cybercriminals, what they target and its value. Think of all the information you hold on employees, vendors, and clients on across platforms. Could you afford to have your system breached?”
According to PwC, the average cost of a firm’s worst security breach is rising significantly. For small businesses, the worst breaches cost between R1,1-million and R2-million on average; for large firms, the damage is between R10,5-million and R2,15-million.
Take control
Kerio Control, puts the control into business owners hands, and is a simple and cost effective, all-in-one security solution, which allows entrepreneurs to protect their network from viruses, malware and malicious activity.
Bringing together multiple capabilities including a network firewall and router, intrusion detection and prevention (IPS), gateway anti-virus, VPN and content filtering – SMEs will be armed with the right, flexible tech needed to secure data.
Preserve the server integrity with deep packet inspection and advanced network routing capabilities
SMEs can create with Kerio Control inbound and outbound traffic policies, restricting communication by specific URL, traffic type, content category and time of day.
Kerio Control’s IPS adds a transparent layer of network protection, with Snort-based behaviour analysis, and a regularly updated database of rules and blacklisted IP addresses from emerging threats
Make sure employees aren’t accessing the wrong kind of websites
Research shows around 80% of security-related incidents occur as a result of employee behaviour. Within Kerio Control entrepreneurs can selectively block, allow or log access to 141 categories of web content using its Web Filter. Keep your users from visiting malware sites that are known to contain viruses and spyware or to engage in phishing or identity theft.
The Kerio Control web filter service limits legal liability, protects your network and boosts user productivity by limiting user access to dangerous or inappropriate sites or those that just plain waste time.
Scrutinise vendors
You have to start by doing a cyber-risk assessment and analyse the data from your employees and customers, and how you’re protecting that information, especially with the Protection of Personal Information Act coming into play. Olivier advises. “Some breaches come in through a third party. So analyse your vendors to make sure are they complying with your privacy and security policies.”
