The Dangerous Myth of 'Too Small to Notice'

It's 2 a.m. and the owner of a small manufacturing shop jolts awake to a phone call. Her email system is locked, customer orders are frozen, and the attacker is demanding $25,000 in Bitcoin by morning. For years, this business owner assumed cybercriminals only targeted the big guys. But in reality, their size made them the perfect mark. It's a changing landscape, and it's high time we covered the increasing amount of risks SMBs face from cybercriminals. 

Why small businesses are prime targets 

When cybercriminals scan for potential victims, they're not looking for the biggest fish; they're looking for the easiest catch. Smaller businesses often run with tight budgets, limited IT staff, and outdated security tools. Attackers know this, and they're opportunists.

Unlike large corporations that can afford sophisticated monitoring systems and dedicated incident response teams, small businesses find themselves in a peculiar situation, often relying on basic antivirus and a single overworked IT generalist—if they have one at all. The result? Gaps in patching, misconfigured firewalls, and weak password policies that are easy to exploit.

Even worse, many small business owners cling to the "below the radar" myth. But threat actors use automated scanning tools that sweep the internet for exposed vulnerabilities, phishing targets, and misconfigured cloud storage. Your company's revenue or headcount isn't part of their decision-making process.

If anything, your size is an incentive. Smaller businesses are more likely to pay up quickly during a ransomware attack just to keep operations running—making you a low-effort, high-reward target.

Real-world breaches that prove the point

In February 2025, Alpha Wellness and Alpha Medical Centre, a small clinic in Alpharetta, Georgia, was crippled by a ransomware attack so severe that it shut down permanently. The incident locked critical systems, exposed patient data, and left the business unable to recover.

Across the globe in Melbourne, Australia, MediSecure, a small online prescription provider, collapsed into liquidation after a ransomware breach traced back to a compromised third-party vendor. Sensitive medical information was exposed, and the damage to customer trust proved fatal to the company.

Even mid-sized healthcare providers aren't immune. U.S. kidney care company DaVita suffered a massive ransomware attack in early 2025 by the Interlock group, affecting nearly one million patients. Social Security numbers, insurance details, and clinical records were stolen—showing that attackers scale their efforts to exploit any gap, no matter the organization's size.

The trend is clear. According to Critical Insight, cyberattacks on physician groups rose from 2% of reported breaches in early 2021 to 12% in the first half of 2022. Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found ransomware in 88% of small business breaches, and that's just a fraction of the 2,200 incidents companies of this size face every day. 

The overlooked vulnerabilities that hackers love

Some vulnerabilities in small businesses are so predictable that cybercriminals practically count on them. One of the most common is the tendency to delay critical software updates. Many owners fear disrupting day-to-day operations, so patches are postponed for weeks or even months. Meanwhile, attackers actively search for and exploit these well-documented flaws, sometimes years after fixes have been released.

Authentication practices are another soft spot. Relying on a single password without multi-factor authentication leaves the door wide open to credential stuffing or brute-force attempts. For a skilled attacker, this can be the equivalent of walking through an unlocked front door.

There's also the issue of human awareness. With little budget allocated to staff training, phishing emails, malicious attachments, and convincing fake login pages slip past untrained eyes. A single click on the wrong link can give criminals a foothold inside your systems.

Finally, shadow IT, the quiet adoption of unsanctioned apps or cloud services, creates security holes no one is monitoring. Employees may turn to convenient tools to get their work done, but each unapproved platform can be another unguarded entry point. These weaknesses aren't the work of elite nation-state hackers. They're low-hanging fruit, and attackers know it.

How attackers turn small gaps into big paydays

An attacker doesn’t need to breach your entire network to cause massive damage. A single compromised account or exposed database can be enough. Once inside, threat actors move laterally—accessing financial systems, customer databases, or intellectual property. Ransomware is often the next step, encrypting critical files and bringing operations to a halt. Even if you pay, there's no guarantee you'll get all your data back intact.

Business email compromise is another favorite tactic. Criminals impersonate executives, vendors, or partners to initiate fraudulent wire transfers. In many cases, these scams are discovered only after reconciliation, when the money is long gone.

The reputational fallout can be just as damaging. Clients and partners may see your breach as a sign of negligence, leading to lost contracts and reduced trust.

Building defenses that actually work

You don't need a Fortune 500 budget to make your business a hard target. Layered, proactive security measures can drastically reduce your risk.

• Enable MFA everywhere: Multi-factor authentication adds a second or third verification step beyond a password, such as a code from an authenticator app or a hardware security key. Even if attackers steal or guess a password, they cannot log in without that extra factor, which blocks the overwhelming majority of credential-based attacks. Roll it out across email, VPNs, financial systems, and any tool that houses sensitive data, and make it non-negotiable for all staff, contractors, and executives.
  

• Keep systems updated: Cybercriminals thrive on known, unpatched vulnerabilities. Establish a disciplined update process for operating systems, applications, and firmware, and stick to it religiously. Automate patch deployment wherever possible to eliminate human forgetfulness, and schedule downtime strategically so updates don't disrupt core operations. Consider vulnerability scanning tools that alert you when something is missed.

• Train your people: No matter how much you spend on software, your employees are your first line of defense. Run regular, bite-sized training sessions and simulated phishing campaigns to sharpen their instincts. Focus on real-world examples, showing them how to spot malicious links, verify sender authenticity, and report suspicious activity instantly. Make security part of your culture, not just an annual compliance box to tick.
  

• Back up regularly: Frequent backups are your safety net, but only if they can't be encrypted or deleted by ransomware. Keep at least one backup copy offline or in immutable storage so attackers can't touch it. Test restoration procedures regularly to ensure you can recover quickly in an actual incident.
  

• Monitor and respond: Threat detection isn't a luxury anymore. Even on a tight budget, small businesses can leverage managed detection and response (MDR) services or cloud-based security monitoring to gain 24/7 visibility. The faster you spot an intrusion, the sooner you can contain it, minimizing damage and recovery costs.
  

These measures aren't silver bullets, but they close the most obvious doors attackers look for.

Small businesses aren't invisible. They're in the crosshairs precisely because attackers expect weak defenses, quick payoffs, and minimal resistance.

Every company connected to the internet is a potential target, and assuming otherwise is an open invitation to trouble.

If you take away one thing, let it be this: invest enough in your defenses so that cybercriminals decide you're not worth the trouble. Your size won't protect you—but your preparedness will.