Small-medium businesses (SMBs) in Connecticut, today face serious cybersecurity threats, including phishing, business email compromise (BEC), malware, ransomware, AI-powered attacks, internal vulnerabilities, and supply chain breaches — all of which can cause major financial, operational, and reputational damage. They no longer have the luxury of delaying taking proactive steps to boost their organization’s cybersecurity.
The stakes are higher than ever.
In the past, some SMBs may have thought that their companies were too small to be concerned about cyberthreats. Or, they didn’t think they had the budgets to support implementing robust cybersecurity protections.
The reality today is that no company, large or small, is completely threat-proof. Small-medium businesses, in fact, represent a growing segment of entities being targeted by cybercriminals.
That’s why it’s crucial that small-medium businesses in Connecticut take action now to strengthen their overall cybersecurity defenses rather than continue to ignore the elephant in the room.
In this article, we’ll detail the critical cybersecurity controls that provide robust protections to keep businesses safe from external or internal threats and vulnerabilities.
After reading this article, you will know what real steps you can take to protect your users, devices, and data to keep your business running smoothly and securely into the future.
What Are The Top Cyberthreats Facing Small Businesses Today?
Cyber incidents are on the rise and small businesses are frequent targets. According to Cisco, top security threats for small businesses in 2025 include:
1. Business Email Compromise (BEC)
While BEC is often lumped in with phishing, it deserves its own spotlight due to the financial damage and SMB targeting trends. According to the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report, BEC scams led to more than $2.7 billion in reported losses, with 85% of incidents targeting small and mid-sized businesses.
BEC attacks typically involve an attacker impersonating a company executive, vendor, or employee via email, and often using lookalike domains or compromised email accounts. The goal is to trick someone in the organization into:
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- Transferring funds
- Sending sensitive information and documents
- Updating payment or banking information
Unlike typical phishing, BEC attacks are meticulously targeted and research-intensive. They frequently leverage advanced AI tools and rely on highly personalized details, making them significantly more difficult for employees to spot and prevent.
2. Phishing
Cybercriminals commonly use fake emails to launch phishing attacks. Cybercriminals often use urgent language or foster a false sense of security with their targets to convince users to click on an infected link or download a malicious file. While phishing emails are the most common method used, attackers can also use fake texts, phone calls, video calls, and social media scams.
These fraudulent tactics are so convincing that they are becoming increasingly harder to detect.
3. Malware
Once they’ve gained a foothold into your systems through a phishing scheme, attackers can use malware to poison your network with malicious code.
This then allows them unfettered access to snoop around your files and emails, study your network traffic, view your contacts, and gather other critical information.
4. Ransomware
By gaining unauthorized access to your network, hackers are able to lie in wait until the right moment to strike—such as launching a ransomware attack to take control of your systems and data and use them as an extortion chip.
5. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled threats
Threat actors are now using AI-backed tools to help them carry out cyberattacks with alarming frequency and precision. These tools include behavior analysis, voice cloning, and deep fakes.
The result is that bad actors are able to launch phishing attacks that are so realistic and convincing that even some trained professionals have been fooled.
6. Supply chain attacks
Cybercriminals are also using malicious AI software to launch devastating supply chain attacks.
Some examples include the recent supply chain attack involving Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the massive Change Healthcare attack in 2024 that caused a tsunami of issues—many of which are still being felt today.
The attack resulted in substantial financial loss, as well as delays in payments, medical care authorizations, prescription processing, and a host of other issues.
7. Infrastructure vulnerabilities
These security flaws can include a host of issues, such as a lack of formally documented cybersecurity policies and procedures, weak passwords, insufficient security controls like encryption and multi-factor authentication, endpoint vulnerabilities, insecure remote access, and outdated technology.
8. Internal threats
Internal threats can vary, depending on the type of business, industry, and infrastructure complexity.
They can include legacy hardware and software; lack of physical security such as locks, security cameras, or motion sensors; software misconfigurations; improper access controls; and unintentional data loss, among other vulnerabilities.
Although uncommon, internal threats could also be intentional damage caused by a disgruntled employee.
Why Do SMBs Continue To Be Top Targets Of Cybercriminals?
Many SMBs are prime targets for malicious actors because of existing cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
That’s because cybercriminals look for the weakest link. They know many small businesses may have significant security weaknesses that they can leverage to gain a foothold into your systems.
Those deficiencies can range from insufficient IT staff, to weak cyber hygiene, and infrastructure security flaws like legacy software, and hardware or network misconfigurations.
These cybersecurity gaps can allow attackers to make inroads into your systems to steal or compromise your data or to launch a larger attack such as ransomware or malware.
What’s Behind The Rising Cyber Threat Risk To Small-Medium Businesses?
Most small and mid-sized businesses leaders have acknowledged the growing risk of new and emerging cyberthreats, even declaring it a top concern. Yet, many of them still haven’t implemented strong cybersecurity controls to reduce the chances of a data breach or some other cyber incident.
While this may seem contradictory, two things can be true.
According to Cisco’s 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index, a mere 4 percent of organizations globally have reached the ‘mature’ level of cybersecurity readiness needed to effectively fight against today’s cybersecurity threats.
Although 86 percent of respondents said their organizations had experienced an AI-related cyber incident in the past 12-month period, only 49 percent believe their employees fully understand AI-related cybersecurity threats.
The research also found that while 71 percent of surveyed organizations believe a cyber incident is likely to disrupt their businesses within the next 12 to 24 months, only about a third (34 percent) said they felt very confident in their current infrastructure cybersecurity resilience to fend off attacks.
In addition, only 45 percent of respondents said they had reserved more than 10 percent of their IT spend on cybersecurity, down from 53 percent in 2024.
So, even as businesses are acknowledging the growing threat risk, many remain ill-prepared for a possible cyber incident.
What Cybersecurity Controls Should SMBs In Connecticut Put In Place & How Can Local Managed IT Help?
Small businesses should ensure that they have an established cybersecurity plan to not only minimize the chances of prolonged downtime and financial harm caused from a cyber incident, but also to be able to quickly recover in the event of a cyberattack.
A local managed IT services provider in Connecticut can work with your team to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity plan that addresses your security needs while aligning with your short- and long-term business goals.
The MSP can then implement the right policies, procedures, software, and tools tailored to your specific business to help keep your organization safe from ever-lurking cyber threats.
Four top cybersecurity measures your local MSP can put in place are:
1. Network segmentation
Protect the integrity and security of your data and IT resources by segmenting your network into smaller sections or subnets. This allows you to create boundaries that keeps certain resources off limits to unauthorized users.
Network administrators often use VLANs (virtual local area networks), SDNs (software defined networks), VPNs (virtual private networks), and next generation firewalls to segment networks and enhance cybersecurity. They can then use access controls to limit the flow of traffic between the different subnetworks and effectively manage network resources.
2. Access controls
Implement strong access controls using least privilege access to allow authorized users, systems, and applications to access only the information and network resources needed to do their jobs.
3. Multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication is another critical component of cyber hygiene because it adds multiple layers of protection. That’s because it requires users to verify their identities using more than one type of authentication.
A managed IT services company in your area can perform a thorough audit of your infrastructure to determine what your current cybersecurity flaws are and what software, devices, and systems are needed to strengthen your cybersecurity posture.
There are, of course, many other cybersecurity tools and systems that an experienced MSP can implement to add additional protections.
Those include putting in place a Security Information & Event Management system (SIEM), advanced data encryption, antivirus and email filtering software, secure data backups, and employee cybersecurity awareness training, for instance.
These solutions, along with other virtual and physical security controls, can go a long way toward strengthening an organization’s security resilience to protect the critical data and technology within an organization’s infrastructure.
4. Email Authentication Protocols: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
Phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks often rely on fake or spoofed email addresses that appear legitimate to the recipient. One of the most effective ways to stop these attacks before they reach your inbox is through email authentication protocols like: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
These protocols work together to:
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- Verify the identity of email senders
- Prevent spoofed emails from being delivered
- Protect your domain’s reputation
- Stop unauthorized third parties from sending email on your behalf
A local managed IT services provider can help you implement and maintain these protocols to ensure your email systems remain secure. This includes domain alignment, policy enforcement, and monitoring for unauthorized activity, which are all critical factors for defending against phishing and BEC.
What Are SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
SPF: confirms whether an email server is authorized to send an email for your domain.
DKIM: attaches a digital signature to each email, ensuring its contents aren’t altered.
DMARC: sets rules for how to handle messages that fail SPF or DKIM, adding an enforcement layer.
Without these protections in place, your business is vulnerable to one of the most common and costly forms of cyberattacks small-medium businesses are facing today.
What’s Next? How You Can Take Action Now To Minimize Risk To Your Business
Now that you’ve read this article, you understand some of the common security risks small businesses are facing and why SMBs remain a top target of cybercriminals. You also now know some effective security measures you can put in place to beef up your security defenses against internal and external threats.
As a local MSP based in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Kelser Corporation has decades of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses like yours put the right cybersecurity solutions in place to reduce risks and help you grow your business.
If you don’t have a large enough IT department, or don’t have one at all, a managed IT service provider (MSP) can help you build a secure environment. If you think managed IT will work for your business, as always, we encourage you to do your due diligence before choosing a provider.
If you’d like to learn more about how Kelser can help your organization strengthen your cybersecurity, click the button to reach out now.
FAQ:
1. How much should a small-medium business budget for cybersecurity in 2026?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The right amount depends on your industry, size, and risk profile. A local MSP can help you build a plan that fits your business and budget.
Learn more: How Much Should SMBs In Connecticut Budget For Cybersecurity In 2026?
2. Is cybersecurity compliance different from cybersecurity protection?
Yes. Compliance refers to meeting regulatory requirements (like HIPAA, CMMC, NIST or PCI-DSS), while cybersecurity protection is about proactively securing your systems and data. You need both, but being compliant doesn’t always mean you’re secure.
3. What cybersecurity services should I expect from a managed IT provider?
An MSP should offer risk assessments, endpoint protection, email security, firewall management, network segmentation, 24/7 monitoring, backup and disaster recovery planning, and employee training. Look for a partner that tailors these services to your business needs.
