"We're too small to be a target" and other cybersecurity myths

If we had a dollar for every time a business owner told us they were 'too small to be a target', we'd have retired by now. It's understandable — cybersecurity headlines tend to focus on massive corporate breaches. But the reality for small and medium businesses is very different, and considerably more relevant to your business than you might think.

Myth 1: Attackers target specific companies. In reality, the overwhelming majority of attacks on small businesses are automated. Software scans the internet for weaknesses — an unpatched system, a weak password, an unprotected email account — and exploits whatever it finds. Your business doesn't need to be famous to be found. It just needs to be exposed.

Myth 2: We don't have anything worth stealing. Every business holds something valuable: customer details, payment information, staff records, or simply the ability to be held to ransom until a payment is made. You don't need trade secrets to be a target — you just need to be operational.

Myth 3: Our antivirus software handles it. Antivirus is one small layer of protection, not a complete strategy. Modern threats increasingly target people, not just software — a convincing fake invoice email is far more likely to cause damage than a virus these days.

Myth 4: A breach would be obvious. Many breaches go unnoticed for weeks or months. Slow, quiet access to a system is often more valuable to an attacker than an obvious, immediate attack.

Myth 5: This is too expensive and complicated for a business our size. This is perhaps the most damaging myth of all. Practical cybersecurity for a small business doesn't require an enterprise budget — it requires the right, proportionate layers of protection, properly set up.

The businesses that get hurt worst aren't the ones with the least valuable data. They're the ones who assumed they weren't a target, and never put the basics in place.