BW Online | February 16, 2000 | Could Your Biz Become a Trojan Horse for Hackers?

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FEBRUARY 16, 2000

DIGITAL MANAGER

Could Your Biz Become a Trojan Horse for Hackers?
A look at the vulnerability of small business to cyber crime

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The attacks this month on some of the premier online sites have forced entrepreneurs, law enforcement officials, and consumers to confront the wired business world's vulnerability to cyber crime. Ebay, Yahoo, Amazon, and CNN were all hit by a strategy that didn't involve the equivalent of breaking and entering. Instead, the attacks amounted to a tidal wave of simultaneous calls to a phone number -- possibly from many computers.

The attacks hit big company sites, but still highlight the vulnerability of small companies. Many lack firewalls and other equipment to parry attackers. Others -- trusting a small staff -- are casual about internal security. There are also new risks associated with the increasingly popular cable modems and DSL connections, which give subscribers a constantly open line to the Web.

In September, Business Week frontier's print edition ran a package on cyber crime, featuring one entrepreneur's experience as the target of a hacker and practical information on how small businesses can protect themselves. Here we highlight that timely information and some other online pieces on security:

Hacked to Pieces Think your business is too small to need network security? That's what intruders are counting on

Picking Up the Pieces After a Hacker Attack Have a plan ahead of time to ensure a quick recovery

Insuring Against Not-So-Sweet Melissa -- and Other Perils of the Cyber-Age Few underwriters appreciate that you care more about the data than the server it's on

Keeping the Barbarians Off Your Web Site Hackers like to hone their skills on small-business sites, FBI experts say

Scrambling to Save Your Data Encryption programs could save your business