Building robust cybersecurity is mandatory for startups and small businesses, as the number of cyberattacks continues to grow and their impact can be devastating.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — In recent years, cyberattacks have occurred in various countries, including Indonesia. The National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) reported that there were 1.6 billion traffic anomalies recorded in 2021 with 62% of these anomalies categorized as malware, and 1.6 million advanced persistent threat (APT) activities recorded in the same year.
However, business players, particularly startups and small businesses, still consider that only large companies with lots of cash, influence, and valuable data should worry about cyberattacks.
According to founder and CEO of AaDya Security, Raffaele Mautone, cyberattacks can cause serious damage to large corporations that most likely will recover and move on. Meanwhile, for a growing small business, those attacks can be devastating.
The number of cyberattacks that have occurred, including on government agencies and institutions as well as personal, makes it clear that cybersecurity is something that cannot be ignored or taken lightly. Regardless of the size or stage of the business, prioritizing cybersecurity is mandatory, including for startups.
Through his writing on Startup Nation, Raffaele, who has spent more than 20 years in the cyber security industry, describes his analysis regarding the trend of cyberattacks against startups to encourage awareness of the importance of building cybersecurity.
Lack of cost and internal knowledge
Cybercriminals recognize that startups and small businesses are often unprotected or under-protected for reasons such as prioritization, cost, internal knowledge, and a lack of dedicated security staff. They also know the chances are the business will not see a breach until it is too late to do anything about it.
The entry point to the company
Hackers understand that exploiting weak points in the supply chain can lead to greater rewards. According to APJ Solution Architect at Imperva, Daniel Toh, the application programming interface (API) is the top threat vector in data breaches. The nature of the API is inadvertently resulting in many applications being more exposed than before can lead to an increased external attack surface.
Choosing easier targets
Customer data is valuable no matter where it comes from. Cybercriminals understand the value of time and effort, making them have the good business sense to turn their attention to easier targets. Therefore, building a robust cybersecurity system is necessary to support corporate sustainability
