Securing Small to Medium-Sized Businesses: The Backbone of the American Economy

Large companies don’t always have the most to lose from a cyberattack and are surprisingly not always the primary targets of cybercriminals. Often, medium and small-sized companies, especially those that handle regulated data like PCI, EPHI, PII, and CUI, are the primary targets for cybercriminals. Smaller companies are primary targets because they lack many of the resources larger companies have—such as state-of-the-art firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoint protection, and cybersecurity training, all of which are critical to preventing a cyberattack.  These reduced defenses provide for more attack vectors and easier targets for exploitation.

With limited budgets and few affordably priced options in terms of comprehensive cybersecurity, attacks on small and medium size companies IT infrastructure can sometimes result in irreparable damage, especially in terms of reputation. It’s very clear that, and there’s no way to spin it, the cybersecurity industry is failing to effectively protect small and medium-sized companies in the U.S.

Reputational damage from a cyberattack can take years to rehabilitate and cyberattacks are expensive post-breach—a financial inconvenience for large companies but devastating for small to medium-sized companies. Costs continue to increase year over year, and now, in 2024, the average cost to repair a breach is $4.88 million. The data  comes from a study by the Ponemon Institute and IBM, conducted between March 2023 and February 2024. Please visit the link below for more information.

https://therecord.media/ibm-breach-report-cost-rise-to-5-million?&web_view=true

The good news is that cyberattacks and reputational damage cost much less to prevent than to clean up. Many attacks can be prevented simply with the use of proper cyber hygiene, policy and procedure, and security training. The myth in the industry is that only tools will mitigate your cybersecurity risk, but honestly, what good is a $30,000 firewall if your end users are clicking on malicious links? What good is a threat dashboard if your termination and onboarding policies are not followed? Or your password policy? The list is long for solutions that have minimal cost to implement but are a large component of cyberattack prevention

I can almost hear you asking, "I get it, there's risk afoot, but how do you plan to be my cybersecurity superhero?"

 I'm thrilled you brought that up!

 Short Answer: Experience from the top of the team to the bottom

RITC Cybersecurity has the perfect team to fulfill your cybersecurity needs. Mike Rotondo (Founder) has been in cybersecurity for about 25 years, working with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small Fintech, Healthcare, and Defense companies with 10-20 employees. We have spent the last several years stretching small to medium-sized companies’ IT budgets and augmenting existing internal teams to meet today’s compliance and customer cybersecurity requirements. RITC Cybersecurity’s team knows how to create effective solutions with technology you have in house rather than spending money that isn’t in your budget to maintain compliance and meet your customer’s security needs. We are confident we can get you secure, compliant, and enable you to answer customer questionnaires and win bigger and better deals to secure your future.

By engaging RITC Cybersecurity, your company can save you roughly 60-80% of what it would cost to bring all the needed security resources in-house. While most companies in the cybersecurity industry are focused on selling cybersecurity products and tools, RITC Cybersecurity takes a technology-neutral approach, providing expertise and resources to small and medium-sized businesses by maximizing and augmenting the team they have and coming up with innovative solutions rather than relying on expensive, off-the-shelf solutions and cookie-cutter programs.

I can hear you thinking, "Mari, your words are captivating, but my to-do list is giving me the side-eye." 

 Our last point I promise:
RITC Cybersecurity can function as your full security department if you don’t have your own internal security team or integrate seamlessly into your existing Security or IT Team. RITC Cybersecurity teaches companies to leverage their internal resources—both team and tools—for their cybersecurity. We can help you identify and securely remove tools and application you don’t need, and fully utilize the features of the tools you already own. Ultimately, our goal is to work ourselves out of a job (though we hate to see you go) by training and equipping your team to become your security team and the security experts for your company.

If you are interested you can set up an appointment right on our website, reach out to us at info@ritcsecurity.com, or call our office at 480-708-7013.