E-Business

How Cybersecurity Readiness Prevents Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) from Fuelling Supply Chain Attacks

Published

4 years ago

June 11, 2022

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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By Pankaj Bhula

Supply chain attacks aren’t new. If the past couple of years have taught businesses anything, it’s that the impact of supply chain cyber attacks is now universal, from the fallout of the SolarWinds software breach to the exposed Apache Log4j vulnerability and Kaseya last year.

Unfortunately, when such supply chain attacks hit smaller businesses, who are usually the suppliers to larger enterprises, their impact is especially prohibitive.

For SMBs already feeling the prolonged impact of the pandemic, the added pressure of dealing with sophisticated and frequent cyber attacks in real time are a heavy burden, as they try to protect their business against financial, legal and reputational damage, as well as their own suppliers and larger clients’ security.

It is now more important than ever for SMBs to implement strict security hygiene and effective cybersecurity processes to ensure their business is prepared for the event of cyber attacks happening.

SMBs as an indirect avenue of cyber attacks

The ‘new normal’ opened the door to several new vulnerabilities; cyber attacks globally increased by 50% on average in 2021, compared to 2020.

Our Check Point Threat Intelligence report revealed that an organisation in South Africa experienced a cyberattack 1,675 times per week, compared to 1,117 attacks per organisation globally.

While security breaches are on the rise, the top threats impacting SMBs have remained the same. In Check Point’s Small and Medium Business Security Report from 2020/2021, we revealed phishing, malware, credential theft and ransomware to be the top four threats impacting these businesses. So, what does this mean for them?

The reality is threat actors have taken advantage not only of the now-entrenched remote working model to target organisations, but also the usual limits preventing SMBs from bulking up on their cyber security defences – mainly lack of budget and expertise. SMBs often do not have a dedicated IT or security department.

With no in-house security expertise and reduced focus on security patching, these companies are easier to socially engineer and infiltrate.

Adding to this, SMBs usually have employees doing multiple roles, and thus a wider access to valuable areas of the business and information is given to them, and so if breached, they pose a threat to multiple areas within the business.

In addition, the business IT infrastructure is often shared for personal use communication as well, such as social media and personal emails, allowing easier access to hackers as the data is often not secured.

Threat actors often target SMBs as low hanging fruit for their vital role in supply chains. This is especially so as such attacks wreak havoc on not only one organisation but entire businesses within the supply networks.

By leveraging tactics such as phishing, cybercriminals gain access to an organisation to launch a malware attack, steal data and credentials or instigate a ransomware.

Take for example, the attack against Target USA where hackers used stolen credentials from an SMB vendor that serviced the HVAC systems in Target stores, to gain access to the retailer’s network and then laterally move to the systems that kept customer payment information. As a result, the global retailer was breached and 40 million credit and debit cards details stolen.

The key factor to preventing cyberattacks is threat prevention. With minimal time and lack of cyber expertise or manpower, SMBs must adopt a prevention mindset to minimise potential cyber attacks and threats.

Why cybersecurity readiness is paramount for SMBs

Beyond the immediate financial impact and reputational blow as a trustworthy, reliable partner, SMBs can also face legal or regulatory repercussions, operational disruption, flow-on costs for system remediation and cyberattack response, customer churn, and the loss of competitive advantage that can make or break a smaller business.

In fact, a tarnished reputation as an avenue of attack can be even more detrimental to an SMB organisation, as the loss of trust with a larger organisation could mean a loss of potential business and revenue down the line with them or other new, potential customers.

With this in mind, budgetary constraints to keep computers and corporate networks protected should never be an excuse, as keeping sensitive data and information protected will bring many advantages and benefits to companies.

This can range from overall cost savings, compliance with data protection laws, gaining the trust of customers and suppliers, to protecting your documents and information to the maximum by preventing any type of data breach.

How SMBs can prevent supply chain attacks

By applying stronger cyber defences, SMBs are in a position to provide larger organisations with assurance that larger companies they supply to will not be compromised via the SMB partner or third-party vendor.

Whilst there are multiple means to prevent such supply chain attacks, the first step is to have good software capable of covering the entire company, protecting the company’s endpoints and devices, and supported by regular backups so that, in the event of a cyber attack, they have the possibility of restoring all the data.

Any device that connects to the network can become a security breach, so it is important to secure all endpoints. It is especially critical for remote or hybrid workforces to avoid security breaches and data compromise.

Also, all employees should be trained in cybersecurity so that they themselves become the first barrier to any attempted attack, such as phishing via email or SMS. Keep in mind that prevention is one of the best protection measures available.

A viable option for SMBs is to also consider engaging an experienced Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), who will have the skilled resources, updated security software and experienced expertise to monitor for and analyse threats on behalf of the SMB player. This is especially useful for SMBs who have neither the time nor resources to adequately enforce threat detection and response.

Partnering with a cybersecurity expert equipped with best-in-class security and scalable solution such as Check Point Software can put SMBs in good stead to protect against the most sophisticated attacks and generate trust among larger potential players.

Ultimately, SMBs seek a simple plug-and-play solution with best-in-class threat protection, given their lack of financial funding and skills.

With an effective cybersecurity strategy, SMBs are better placed to demonstrate their credibility as secure partners to larger organisations, opening up more business opportunities.

Pankaj Bhula is Regional Director for Africa at Check Point Software

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E-Business

Firm Discovered a New Corporate Phishing Technique using a Popular AI Web Development Platform

Published

2 days ago

June 11, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Kaspersky has discovered that attackers have begun exploiting another legitimate service for malicious purposes – this time it is Tencent EdgeOne Pages, a platform for creating and hosting web applications.

Attackers are misusing its capabilities to generate phishing emails targeting corporate users. Previously Kaspersky has described similar attacks leveraging Google services and web applications generated by Bubble, an AI-powered app builder, to hunt for corporate credentials.

Employees across multiple industries including the industrial sector, sales, and government are among the targets. The goal of the attack is to steal login credentials for corporate resources. Over the past 30 days, the company’s experts have detected more than 8,000 phishing emails using this tactic, including messages in English, Korean, and Russian.

The Tencent EdgeOne Pages service is positioned as a platform for quickly creating and deploying web applications using AI. Scammers misuse it to generate and publish phishing pages in minutes with virtually no web development skills.

Attackers host phishing pages on EdgeOne’s legitimate cloud infrastructure and use trusted domains. As a result, such sites appear to be established and secure to many protective solutions, complicating the detection of such attacks.

How the attack begins

The user receives an email from the alleged “corporate email support team”. The message states that the account login credentials will expire in 48 hours, and that failure to update them may result in problems receiving or sending emails.

To avoid restrictions, the user is prompted to click a link and enter relevant information. Phishing emails are not limited to this narrative, and could deliver any corporate message, such as a message from the HR department or a notification of a received document that should be downloaded.

Clicking the link in the email opens a page with a form for entering the victim’s name, email address, and password. It is a simple design, with virtually no additional elements.

After the user enters their login and password, the data is transferred to a server controlled by the attackers.

“We are seeing a continuation of the trend in which attackers use AI and no-code platforms as part of their phishing infrastructure. We’ve previously observed a similar scheme using the Bubble platform, and here we have yet another example.

“While the communication used in these phishing attacks is typical and has been used before multiple times, the attack technique itself significantly lowers the barrier to entry for attackers and accelerates the creation of phishing resources.

“Previously this required at least basic web development skills, but now an infrastructure for fraudulent emails can be created in minutes,” comments Roman Dedenok, Anti-Spam Expert at Kaspersky.

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E-Business

Kaspersky Report Shows Early 2026 Witnessed an Increase in Cyberattacks on the Manufacturing Sector

Published

3 days ago

June 10, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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According to a new Kaspersky ICS CERT report, in Q1 2026 the percentage of industrial control systems (ICS) on which malicious objects were blocked reached 19.6% globally. Kaspersky security solutions blocked malware from 10,052 different malware families of various categories on industrial automation systems.

Regionally, the share of ICS computers that were attacked ranged from 27.4% in Africa to 9.1% in Northern Europe. Compared to the previous quarter, attacks on the manufacturing sector in Q1 increased in multiple regions, including in Europe and Asia.

Regional split

In terms of overall numbers across all industry sectors, five regions saw an increase in the share of attacked ICS computers in Q1 2026 compared to the previous quarter. These were Southern Europe, Russia, Northern Europe, Canada and Africa.

Industries

In Q1, biometric systems traditionally placed first in terms of the share of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, at 26.4%. These systems commonly have Internet access, are used for email, and, in many cases, have minimal cybersecurity controls within the organisations that use these systems.

Regionally, Southern Europe leads the ranking based on the percentage figures for biometric systems, at 35.15%. Africa follows at 29.58%, and Central Asia comes in third at 28.53%.

In the manufacturing industry, Southeast Asia ranks first among regions in terms of the percentage of ICS computers attacked (23.21%), followed by Africa (21.36%) and South Asia (20.13%).

In 2025, Kaspersky and VDC Research estimated that in just the first three quarters of 2025 cyberattacks on manufacturing organisations via ransomware could have generated over $18 billion globally in losses. Actual business losses could have been even higher when factoring in supply-chain disruptions, reputational damage, and recovery expenses.

“Legacy operational technology systems remain deeply embedded in manufacturing environments, which makes them vulnerable. Supply chain complexity and branching of the trusted partner network expands the attack surface beyond the network perimeter.

Attackers are realising that targeting OT assets of an industrial enterprise is not rocket science, which is why factory shutdowns bring massive financial losses,” commented Evgeny Goncharov, Head of Kaspersky ICS CERT.

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E-Business

NDPC, Meta Launch 2-Year M-SIDP after Regulatory Settlement

Published

4 days ago

June 9, 2026

Ebere Melum-Nwogbo

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Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched the Meta-Supported Initiatives for Data Protection (M-SIDP), a strategic programme aimed at strengthening data privacy awareness, regulatory compliance and institutional capacity across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

NDPC, Meta Launch 2-Year M-SIDP after Regulatory Settlement

The initiative follows the conclusion of regulatory proceedings involving Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, over concerns relating to the processing of personal data belonging to Nigerian users. The matter was resolved in 2025 through a court-approved settlement.

Under the agreement, Meta committed to supporting a two-year programme of public-facing data protection measures designed to advance the objectives of the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDP Act) 2023, the General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID), and the NDPC Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) 2023–2027.

Announcing the initiative, the Commission said the programme would strengthen safeguards for data subjects while promoting responsible data processing practices among organisations operating in Nigeria.

According to a statement signed by Itunu Dosekun, head of the NDPC Media Unit, the programme will focus on governance, research and development, safety and sustainability mechanisms for technology ecosystems, capacity building for Data Protection Officers (DPOs) and Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs), as well as public awareness campaigns targeted at vulnerable groups.

The Commission stated, “As part of the settlement, Meta committed to supporting a two-year programme of public-facing data protection measures that aligns with the objectives of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDP Act), the NDP Act General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID) and the NDPC Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) 2023–2027.”

The NDPC stressed that the settlement does not limit its regulatory authority.

“Nothing in this settlement limits the Commission’s independent statutory powers as we continue to exercise our regulatory mandate in relation to data processing activities in Nigeria, in accordance with the NDP Act and other applicable laws,” it stated.

The development comes amid rising global scrutiny of technology companies over data privacy practices, with regulators in regions including the European Union and the United States tightening enforcement against breaches and non-compliance.

Nigeria has also intensified efforts to strengthen its privacy framework following the enactment of the Nigeria Data Protection Act in 2023, which established the NDPC as an independent regulator empowered to monitor compliance, investigate violations and impose sanctions.

Industry experts warn that increasing digital adoption across banking, telecommunications, e-commerce, healthcare and public services has heightened risks of identity theft, cybercrime and unauthorised data sharing.

The NDPC has in recent years stepped up enforcement actions against organisations that violate data protection rules, while also expanding accreditation for Data Protection Compliance Organisations and training for privacy professionals.

The Meta-supported initiative is expected to address gaps in public awareness and technical capacity, while also supporting research and policy development on emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, cross-border data transfers and platform governance.

The Commission said it would provide periodic updates on the implementation of the programme and called on stakeholders to support efforts to build a secure, transparent and accountable privacy ecosystem in Nigeria.

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