Education needed to help SMEs combat e-crime

During the past World Economic Forum, cybercrime was identified as the number one rising threat to businesses.

Experts called for a new system to tackle well-organised cybercrime because online theft costs $1 trillion a year, the number of attacks is rising sharply and too many people do not know how to protect themselves, they said.

With cybercrime reaching such rampant levels, most small and medium sized businesses know that they have to protect themselves.

Many, however, find it difficult to keep up with the latest jargon, or don’t understand enough themselves to make educated decisions about what security solutions are most suited to their businesses.

Cybercriminals also do their best to exploit the lack of knowledge regarding basic IT security practices.

“Most small businesses don’t have the luxury of dedicated IT security staff in house and are often sceptical around the information provided by security vendors with a vested interest in selling more software or services,” comments David Cruse, CEO and Founder, Conjungo.

“We have therefore launched an enhanced security section within our ‘Go Understand’ knowledge library to provide more information about IT security, written in plain English and without bias towards any particular vendor or service.”

The ‘Go Understand’ websites cover the areas of antivirus, content filtering and firewalls; they are written without technical jargon, and are aimed at providing practical and independent advice for small business users.

These online resources cover basic concepts, the main threat vectors, and the range of technologies that can help protect business against data theft, electronic vandalism, viruses and spam.

Cruse adds: “There is a lot of noise in the marketplace about the danger posed by viruses, hackers and e-criminals and it is important that there are trusted information resources available via the web that provide clear and unbiased information to end users.

If users want additional help, they can find local suppliers quickly within the Conjungo search engine or even contact us via email using our free independent advice service.”