Ransomware operators have shifted their focus. While headline-grabbing attacks against multinational corporations still happen, criminal groups increasingly set their sights on small and medium-sized businesses. The reason is brutally simple: smaller organisations rarely have dedicated security teams, and they often pay ransoms quickly to resume operations.
The attack chain typically begins with reconnaissance. Threat actors scan the internet for exposed services, outdated software, and misconfigured remote access portals. Small businesses frequently leave Remote Desktop Protocol open to the internet or run web servers with known vulnerabilities. These gaps take minutes to find and seconds to exploit.
Phishing remains the most reliable entry point. Criminals craft emails that mimic invoices, delivery notifications, or messages from trusted suppliers. One employee clicking a malicious link can hand over credentials that unlock the entire network. From there, attackers move laterally, escalate privileges, and position themselves to deploy ransomware across every reachable system.
Modern ransomware operations run like professional businesses. They maintain customer support portals, negotiate payment plans, and even offer discounts for quick settlement. Many groups now practise double extortion, stealing sensitive data before encrypting systems. Victims face a terrible choice: pay the ransom or watch their confidential information appear on leak sites.
The financial impact extends far beyond the ransom payment itself. Business downtime, recovery costs, legal fees, regulatory fines, and reputational damage often exceed the ransom amount several times over. Some small businesses never recover. Studies consistently show that a significant percentage of organisations hit by ransomware close within months of the attack.
Expert Commentary
William Fieldhouse | Director of Aardwolf Security Ltd
“Small businesses often believe they fly under the radar of ransomware operators, but the opposite is true. Criminal groups specifically target smaller organisations because they tend to have weaker defences and are more likely to pay quickly. Regular vulnerability assessments and patching alone would prevent a significant portion of these attacks.”
Prevention does not require an enterprise-level budget. Routine vulnerability scanning services catch the low-hanging fruit that attackers exploit first. Keeping software patched, enforcing strong passwords, and segmenting networks all reduce your exposure substantially. These measures are not glamorous, but they work.
Backup strategies make or break ransomware recovery. Organisations need offline or immutable backups that attackers cannot reach during an intrusion. Test these backups regularly. A backup that fails during restoration is worse than no backup at all because it creates a false sense of security.
Endpoint detection and response tools have become affordable enough for smaller organisations to deploy. These solutions spot suspicious behaviour, such as mass file encryption, and can isolate compromised machines before damage spreads across the network.
Regular external network penetration testing reveals exactly what an attacker sees when they probe your internet-facing systems. These assessments uncover exposed services, weak credentials, and misconfigured firewalls that automated scans alone might miss. Fixing these findings before criminals discover them is significantly cheaper than dealing with an active breach.
Ransomware gangs will not stop targeting small businesses. The economics favour them too heavily. Your best response is building defences that make your organisation harder to compromise than the next one on their list.
