Small Businesses Face Point of Sale Vulnerabilities [Infographic]

In 2012, the retail industry comprised 45 percent of data breach investigations, the highest percentage in retail history—and a 15 percent increase over 2011. E-commerce sites were the most common target, accounting for 48 percent of all investigations. Attacks were discovered in 29 different countries, and the largest percentage originated in Romania. It took 64 percent of attacked businesses more than 90 days to detect an intrusion—the overall average was a whopping 210 days!

Small business owners may believe their business is safe from data breaches, but this is misguided thinking. The fact that the most common password is “Password1” may be a sign of overconfidence. Consider that 63 percent of 2010 cyber attacks were at companies with 100 employees or fewer, and 95 percent of credit card data breaches are on small business customers, according to Vista’s estimates. According to the Payment Card Industry, Security Standards Council many businesses neglect basic security measures to protect against credit card hacks. Hackers can break into dozens of small businesses or one large business in the same amount of time.

To improve security, businesses should educate employees, identify users, register assets, protect data, unify activity logs, and visualize events. Were you aware that small businesses are so vulnerable to data breaches? Please share in the comments, and check out the infographic below presented by MerchantWarehouse.

Brought to you by Merchant Warehouse