Cyber security and a punch to the face

I’ll never forget the morning I woke-up and discovered that my website had been attacked. It was an embarrassing moment that also had me feeling violated. Why hadn’t I taken the extra steps to ensure that my site wouldn’t get attacked? Why would someone do this to me and my small business?

I’m a startup, just like a lot of the people reading this post.

After I got over the initial shock and woe-is-me moment, I had to start getting to work to repair all the damage that had been done. That action in itself was another headache that I’d prefer not to get into right now.

The fact of the matter is that I am not the only one that has had to deal with this experience. Far from it. There have been countless amounts of startups and businesses of all sizes that have been attacked.

But, startups seem to be frequent targets when it comes to cyber attacks.

In 2015, companies like Snapchat, Twitch, and Slack all made headlines for being attacked. The common consensus was that startups have made themselves targets. Even more important for myself and everyone else reading this, nobody is really safe from an attack. Eventually it’s going to happen in some form to you.

Tripp Jones, a general partner at the venture capital firm August Capital, told The New York Times‘ Bits blog that “When a company reaches a certain size or notoriety, it’s going to get hacked.

“Unfortunately, until someone comes up with a better way, the battle has shifted to identification, containment and damage mitigation.” Jones also added, “It’s a big, big problem.”

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