With so many stories emerging every day regarding data breaches at major corporations or government agencies, it would be easy to assume that cybercriminals solely target large enterprises and ignore small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and individuals. However, this perception does not match the current state of cybersecurity in the world. Many of today's hackers now specifically target smaller entities because of the lower risks involved, making data security a prominent concern for companies of all sizes.

Digital security expert Larry Ponemon outlined the threat posed by cybercriminals to SMBs in a recent Harvard Business Review blog post. He noted that traditional assumptions regarding the isolated nature of data thieves, their finite resources and drive to make a name for themselves within the hacking community with attention-capturing attacks have become outdated.

"Cyber attackers tended to be lone wolves who went after high-profile companies or government organizations," Ponemon wrote. "They were trying to score political points or show off their power to break in and disrupt. They weren't in business to siphon money out of digital commerce or trying to bring down governments. As they are today."

Targeting small businesses offers a wealth of benefits for cybercriminals. For one, their data security solutions are not as sophisticated as those operated by larger enterprises. For instance, many do not use data encryption software, meaning that hackers can easily access the contents of any file without needing a decryption key. SMBs also have a fair amount of valuable information stored on their servers, including financial records, client information and contact lists. This data can be leveraged to drain account funds or commit identity fraud. 

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Ponemon noted that hackers may be interested in using a business' network as an access point for bigger targets. For instance, if an organization frequently worked with a larger enterprise such as a supply vendor, malware could spread from the smaller entity to the larger one. Also, hackers may be interested in the holdings of an organization's employees. According to Ponemon, cybercriminals may breach a company network simply to get the log-in credentials belonging to affluent employees and then - banking on individuals reusing passwords - use that information to access their financial accounts.

The Vancouver Sun warned that even without the availability of any of these spoils, individual workstations are still at risk for malware infection. Hackers routinely rely on the processing power of botnet systems to launch successful assaults against heavily defended networks. By infiltrating a user's computer, cybercriminals can add that machine to their botnet and remotely send it operational instructions without the owner realizing the system has been compromised. That is why both SMBs and consumers should deploy comprehensive data security solutions to prevent cybercriminals from infecting their workstations and accessing sensitive data.