Dark Reading Identifies Security Risks To SMBs

The past seven days have unintentionally become a sort of "Security Awareness Week" here at SmallBusinessNewz, with previous articles talking about social media threats, identity theft, and free security software.  Now, to (maybe) cap it off, let’s talk about "the top five ways attackers target small businesses" as identified by Dark Reading.

One big thing to watch out for is P2P downloading.  All sorts of nasty malware circulates in those circles, and as organizations like the RIAA have proven by suing pirates, P2P tech also makes it possible for people to latch onto an IP address.

Drive-by downloads are another problem.  Randy George wrote for Dark Reading, "By injecting a hidden iFrame (or something similar) into the source code of a particular Web page, a hacker can silently execute a script or drop a downloader onto the local system for the purpose of delivering malware, or worse."

Next, as just about everybody should know, email attachments and phishing attacks pose threats.

Finally, Dark Reading essentially agreed with Panda Security about social media risks, with George adding, "Ever receive an email from a Facebook friend linking you to an ‘embarrassing’ picture that you just have to see right away?  Run your mouse pointer over the hyperlink and see if it actually resolves to the Facebook domain.  URL obfuscation is the easiest and oldest trick in the book for propagating malware, and it’s an extremely effective way to ensnare unsuspecting victims."

Be careful out there.  It’d be no fun to lose all your records (and maybe your computers) due to some malware.