4 Common Threats to a Business’ Data

For a business to run smoothly, it has to account for any potential threat to its regular operations. And with companies working online now more than ever, the internet can pose a significant threat.

Luckily, backing up data can prevent most threats or at least make recovering from data loss much easier. Here are 4 main areas where a business’ data can be exploited.

Hacking

Did you know that half of all cyberattacks target small businesses? Hackers have an easier time of defeating a small business’ defenses and are less likely to get caught. Small business owners are also more likely to store valuable personal data behind their sites and to pay ransoms for restoring their data.

The average small business’ webpage gets attacked 44 times in a single day by hacking bots. They look for any exploitable plugins or weaknesses on a webpage and all it takes is one weakness for a website to get hacked.

Human Error

Have you ever deleted an email by mistake or lost a file on your computer? Accidents can happen pretty easily, especially during a trying work week. In fact, spilled drinks are one of the most common ways that computers lose data.

Viruses

Ten percent of all computers contract a virus each month worldwide. Viruses can be shared via links or hiding behind websites – and you’re more susceptible to them with outdated software or plugins. A good firewall or malware defense can protect you, but there’s always a chance that a stray virus can slip past your defenses.

Hard Drive Crashes

Over 140,000 hard drives crash each week in the United States alone. Hard drives generally display no warning before they crash entirely, and once they crash, data recovery is nearly impossible.

All of these threats are preventable – or at least treatable – by backing up your company’s data before any of these issues arise. You can check out more numbers on data loss on the infographic below.

Alex Briggs is a contributing author for Las Vegas IT Consulting.