Cyber security is essential for SMBs

Back in the day, if you were to receive a spam email and open it or use a random thumb drive, you could end up being a victim of a cyber-attack. Although times have changed and technology has evolved, so have the crimes against small and medium businesses (SMBs) as they are still targets for cyber-attacks.

With the emergence of the remote/hybrid working environment and the growth of technology that has positively impacted human life, we have all become more dependent on our tools to get us through our day-to-day businesses. This, however, comes with the risk of cyber-attacks. If you use a tech device for whatever reason, you will likely be exposed to these attacks.

According to Microsoft, there has been a 1,070 per cent increase in ransomware attacks year-over-year between July 2020 and June 2021. Based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2021 IC3 report, found that the cost of cybercrime now totals more than USD6.9 billion.1 Today, Microsoft tracks 35 ransomware families, and more than 250 unique nation-states, cybercriminals, and other threat actors.

How can we prevent cyber-attacks?

Cyber security has become a necessity for businesses of all sizes as their systems and networks containing sensitive and valuable data have come under siege by malicious threats. It is designed to protect all categories of data from theft and damage.

That is why protecting your entire digital life is so important, whether at home or work. Here is where Microsoft Defender for Business can help you stop these malicious attacks. Defender for Business brings enterprise-grade endpoint security to SMBs, including endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities, with the ease of use and the pricing that small business customers and their partners expect.

To protect against the increasing volume and sophistication of cyberattacks such as ransomware, SMBs need elevated security. Many SMBs still rely on traditional antivirus, which provides only a single layer of protection by matching against signatures to protect against known threats.

With Defender for Business, you get multi-layered protection, detection, and response, spanning the five phases of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework—identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover—to protect and remediate against known and unknown threats. Let’s look at the capabilities in detail:

Identify

• Threat and vulnerability management helps you to prioritize and focus on the weaknesses that pose the most urgent and highest risk to your Business. By discovering, prioritizing, and remediating software vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, you can proactively build a secure foundation for your environment.

Protect

• Attack surface reduction options help minimize your attack surface (like the places where your company is vulnerable to cyberattacks across your devices and applications), leaving bad actors with fewer ways to perform attacks.
• Next-generation protection helps prevent and protect against threats at your front door with antimalware and antivirus protection—on your devices and in the cloud.

Detect and respond

• Endpoint detection and response provide behavioural-based detection and response alerts so you can identify persistent threats and remove them from your environment.

Recover

• Auto-investigation and remediation help to scale your security operations by examining alerts and taking immediate action to resolve attacks for you. Defender for Business allows you to prioritize tasks and focus on more sophisticated threats by reducing alert volume and remediating threats.

With the increase of hacks, data breaches, digital scams, and ransomware attacks it is pertinent that you and your businesses are protected from these cyber-attacks. Don’t be part of the statistic.

We at Softline Philippines can help you make the most of your Microsoft Defender for Business subscription. If you wish to learn more about how you can protect your business reach out to us.