MSMEs are most susceptible to Cyber Frauds

With the rapid shift of small businesses towards digital ecosystems during pandemic, their chance of falling prey to rampant digital frauds are very likely hence the digital platforms need to invest more in cyber security to ensure secured payments.

In a highly digitized world the likelihood of cyber crimes cant be overlooked as the number of cyber attacks shot up almost three times compared to about 1.6 million cases registered last year. The financial services firms in Asia pacific region are more vulnerable to these frauds which might increase the global cost of cyber crimes which is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025.

Firms like PayPal has taken a welter of measures to cushion ravaged MSMEs by way of providing collateral-free loans up to Rs 1 crore but they need to work on account of cyber security and redressal mechanisms handling  grievances from SMEs and people in smaller towns who are very vulnerable to cyber frauds.

Clocking a total payment volume of US$247 billion, PayPal tops the list of popular online payment providers among major brands and a variety of smaller businesses and vendors. Compared to major firms, smaller vendors, especially those that sell items as a sideline, don’t have the luxury of having integrating cyber-defenses infrastructure. As a result, smaller vendors are a lot more susceptible to various forms of fraud and cyberattacks that threat actors can fling their way.

There are a very few financial services companies which spend more than 3% of their operating budget on cybersecurity that comes under investment in security and vulnerability towards fraud and data breach.

In the view of rising cyber scams its always best to scrutinize any unsolicited email you get, especially those that appear to be customer service inquiries.