There’s a lot of myths floating around out there regarding cyber security. The problem is, most business owners and executives blindly take them for fact simply because they need to focus on their work and don’t have the time to rack their brain thinking about IT security.

Luckily we’re here to let you know about the most common misconceptions we hear:

“Our computers work fine and we’ve never had a data breach, so we don’t need to regularly update our network.”

Computer networks are complex and dynamic systems that need regular updates and maintenance to stay up, running fast and problem free. This would be like not changing the oil in your car just because it hasn’t broken down since your last oil change. Not only this, but the longer you leave your network running on an old patch, the more time you give hackers to attack the holes in the security. One of the major reasons why software developers issue updates in the first place is to fix security flaws that are often discovered only when hackers have located and breached it.

“All computer technicians are created equal – my neighbor’s techy kid takes care of my work computer.”

Don’t look for a part-time “guru” just to save money, you need someone who does this for a living! Do you really want an inexperienced person handling your entire network and all of your company’s data? Many people don’t realize just how easy it is for your data to be accidentally deleted or sent to the wrong hands. Computer support is one of those get-what-you-pay-for operations. A cheap price usually means a cheap job. The only technicians who work for cheap are either just starting out or are grossly inexperienced.

“I talked to an IT consultant over the phone a couple times and got a great quote. I’m hiring them!”

Just like a good doctor, an honest and professional technician will need to diagnose your network before they can quote any price. No IT consultant can get the full picture of your situation without seeing your network in person. Some consultants will quote you a cheap rate, then jack up the price once they are in your office.

“My business will never be the victim of an attack. Why would a cyber criminal waste their time on me when there’s much bigger targets out there?”

This is the misconception that hurts our brains the most. We think it happens because small business owners only see the large hacks that make the news – the ones where giant banks, hospitals and government agencies are attacked. What they don’t know is that hackers love targeting smaller, easier to breach businesses because to them it’s a quick pay day. It doesn’t take much on their end either. All they have to do is cast a wide net of phishing emails and catch one employee that is uneducated on IT threats to lock down the entire office. If it’s a ransomware attack, that hacker can make a fast four or five figures in a day or two simply by sending a phishing email to a small business.

If any of these four points has you thinking that you might need to change the way you view your company’s IT security, click this link to learn about the TOSS C3 cloud and how it can help!