The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday announced the launch of a new website designed to help small businesses protect against cyberattack.
The site -- fcc.gov/cyberforsmallbiz -- includes links to vendor, nonprofit and government resources, including materials from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and a PowerPoint presentation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The site also contains a top 10 list of tips for small businesses. They include training employees, installing patches, limiting access and regularly changing passwords.
The FCC launched this initiative, in partnership with business consulting group SCORE and the Small Business Administration, to educate small companies on how to best leverage broadband to drive growth.
"While it is critical to secure the government and large industry from cyberthreats, it is vital that cybersecurity for small business be in this equation," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a news release.
Small and midsize businesses have been hit particularly hard in recent years by hackers who use malware to steal their corporate bank account credentials, which they use to wire out large amounts of cash, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.
Experts have said these organizations should consider additional steps, such as dedicating machines only for online banking use.
Despite the risks, a February survey from Symantec revealed that, of 1,425 respondents worldwide, SMBs are facing a “security gap” because they often lack basic security measures -- 59 percent of respondents do not have endpoint protection, 47 percent lack desktop backup recovery and 42 percent are not running an anti-spam solution.
