Four key cyber security trends and risks for small businesses in 2024

In recent years, we’ve seen technology advance rapidly in a number of areas. Developments in automation and artificial intelligence have been hugely beneficial for businesses, helping to save time and streamline processes like marketing.

With technological advancements come new and more complex cyber threats. While a robust cyber security system can help to protect your business against common risks like viruses and malware, cyber threats are increasingly intelligent and business owners can still get caught out.

Here’s a roundup of the main cyber security trends and risks to have on your radar in 2024.

Generative artificial intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a type of technology that can be used to create brand-new outputs, such as content, audio, code, images, and videos. ChatGPT is a type of generative AI; GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.

ChatGPT is immensely popular with business owners, for its ability to save time and resources. Small business owners are using it to write marketing material, organize data, and create website code, but its capabilities are advancing quickly.

The latest version of ChatGPT can generate realistic, synthetic human voices from just a few seconds of sample speech. Spotify is already using the technology to pilot its Voice Translation feature, which will translate podcasts into different languages, all in the podcaster’s own voice.

OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, admit that “these capabilities also present new risks, such as the potential for malicious actors to impersonate public figures or commit fraud”.

It’s an important area for small business owners to follow in 2024. The technology is at an early stage still but could pave the way for smarter, more personalized phishing attempts in the future. Emails, texts, and phone calls could ultimately mimic someone else’s voice, so make sure you and your team are vigilant about anything suspicious.

Cyber resilience

One small business owner we spoke to recently talked about how exhausting it is to keep up with fast-moving cyber security risks. This has led to the next major trend: cyber resilience.

Cyber security and cyber resilience are often used interchangeably, but they are slightly different concepts. While cyber security helps to protect your business from attacks, cyber resilience enables your business to continue even if it’s attacked.

Most businesses recognize that even the best cyber security won’t guarantee foolproof protection. Establishing a cyber resilience strategy will help your business to quickly respond if you suffer a cyber attack or data breach.

As part of your cyber resilience plan, you might want to:

• Identify mission-critical processes, systems and technologies and upgrade their security
• Implement cloud technology to back up the most important parts of your business
• Create a cyber incident response plan, which clearly sets out how your business will respond and recover if there is a cyber attack

Zero trust 

Zero trust is part of the movement towards cyber resilience and is based on the idea that no system is 100% secure. 

A zero-trust security strategy involves giving users just the right amount of access needed to do their jobs – nothing more. Users will need to be verified and continuously have their access re-authorised.

This involves thinking about:

• Who can access what and when 
• The authentication needed to access those tools or assets
• What information can enter or leave your network

If you’re using a cloud storage and file-sharing platform like Google Drive, the easiest way to get started with a zero-trust strategy is to check available permissions and make sure access is restricted where necessary. These permissions should be revisited regularly, and access immediately revoked if someone (e.g. a freelancer) stops working with your business.

Normalizing best practices

One of the biggest challenges of cyber security has always been that it’s only as strong as your weakest link – your staff. Famously, the WannaCry cyber attack on the NHS in 2017 was so destructive because local trusts had simply failed to upgrade old computer systems.

In the last six years, cyber security has become a more well-known subject. Most people who work with digital systems recognize its importance, and cyber security tools like multi-factor authentication and password managers are more commonplace and accessible than ever.

As a result, cyber security practices are becoming normalized in businesses and we expect this trend to continue into 2024. Rather than it being the sole responsibility of one individual, keeping an organization secure is something that should be on everyone’s agenda. 

Read more about cost-effective ways to upskill your team on cyber security.