{"id":18912,"date":"2020-08-31T16:05:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T10:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/?p=18912"},"modified":"2025-02-14T13:47:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T08:17:27","slug":"why-vapt-should-be-top-priority-for-smes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techjockey.com\/blog\/why-vapt-should-be-top-priority-for-smes","title":{"rendered":"Why VAPT Should be the Top Priority for SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A report<\/a> by Kaspersky found that more than 35% small and medium enterprises in India became prey to data breaches in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a staggering statistic reflects that\nmost of the SMEs today are achieving growth at the cost of security. Small\nbusiness owners are often under the impression that hackers prefer the critical\ndata of big enterprises over the others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there is another data that suggests alarming answers about the impact of cyber risk on small businesses. 60% of the SMBs close within six months of reporting the first instance of being hacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With all this data pointing towards a cybersecurity\ncatastrophe awaiting, there seems to be an increased awareness in the SMB camp\nregarding securing their systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are still lagging in terms of\ncyber security measures, let\u2019s analyse some of the loopholes in your existing\nprocess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Globally more than 40% cyberattacks are aimed at small and medium enterprises, as per Accenture\u2019s report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is because they don\u2019t have adequate\nbudget and resources to implement and manage security of their networks. SMBs\ndo not have the backing of a dedicated team of cyber security experts to detect\nand prevent impending risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft withdrew all support and updates to Windows 7 as the OS was being increasingly pirated. As per a recent Kaspersky report, 41% users still use the unsupported version of the Windows operating system<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This fact makes SMEs an easy target for\nhackers as they miss out on crucial security updates associated with original\nsoftware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent times, there has been an\nincrease in the rise of intellectual property theft. This is particularly\ncritical for newly founded start-ups as all they have is the idea on which the\ncompany has been built. If that is stolen, the company will crumble. <\/p>\n\n\n In India, the enforcement of laws preventing the violation of intellectual property has improved marginally since 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suggested Read: Top 12 Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) in India<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s Time to Change Your Response to Hacking Threat <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a recent survey<\/a> on cybersecurity and SMBs conducted by\nKeeper\u2019s security, it was found that a staggering number of 43% business owners\nbelieved they wouldn’t face a cyberattack ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zomato may have had the same opinion until 2017 when its system was hacked and data of 17 million customers compromised. Reports suggested that the data was available on the dark web to be sold to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this point, you might have caught on\nto the fact that SMBs are not at all safe from cyber threats and need urgent\nupgrades to resolve vulnerabilities existing in the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The economic crisis and fund crunch\nemerging out of the COVID-19 pandemic has further made things difficult for\nsmall businesses, as they don\u2019t have their own team of cyber security experts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Further, as employees work from home on\ntheir own systems, they handle critical data without presence of company\nspecific security tools.<\/p>\n\n\n In such a scenario, the only feasible solution\nis that small and medium scale organisations have a know-how of all\nvulnerabilities posing a risk to their system. This is possible through VAPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VAPT stands for Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT)<\/a> and is a cybersecurity testing tool which identifies different risks to your system architecture and suggests corrective steps required to mitigate these risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n VAPT\nconsists of two parts: Vulnerable Assessment (VA) and Penetration Testing (PT).\nVA finds out all the general gaps in your network and suggests the ways to\nmitigate risks. On the flip side, PT focuses on those vulnerabilities which are\nlikely to be exploited by hackers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the survey conducted by Keeper\u2019s Security, it was found that 1 in 4 businesses were not clear about how to implement a cybersecurity policy. For such organisations, implementing VAPT can be useful to understand gaps in their security and adopt the rectifying measures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Below we list some reasons as to why VAPT\nshould be the top priority for small and medium enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Small businesses rely solely on firewall and antivirus solutions<\/a> for their system security needs. This is not enough as cyberthreats evolve continuously and come in more dangerous forms such as malware, ransomware, phishing attack, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n Moreover, hackers have multiple entry\npoints to manipulate critical data which are not covered by antivirus and\nfirewall. VAPT is useful for identifying those entry points and obtaining\nmeasures to close them as soon as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaspersky estimated that around 45% SMBs allocate lower than average budgets for cybersecurity. A major reason for this is the lack of monetary resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n VAPT helps such businesses detect\nvulnerabilities which can compromise their systems. The organisation would then\nhave a clear idea about the critical threats they need to counter\nfirstanddesign their IT security budget accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a report, a healthy percentage of customers around 60% believes that their personal data can be hacked. Such distrust in the minds of potential investors and new clients is not healthy for the growth of small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VAPT can effectively counter this by\nproviding a detailed analysis of pain points which can impact not only your\ndata but also your client\u2019s data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Why Your SMB is an Ideal Target for Hackers<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<\/span>What is VAPT<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Why VAPT Should be the Top Priority for SMEs<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>VAPT Goes Beyond Firewall and Antivirus Solution<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>VAPT Streamlines Security Budget of SMEs<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>VAPT Helps Maintain Customer Trust<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n