It’s been said that six out of ten small businesses that suffer a cyber attack close shop six months after being hacked. This is an urgent fact that small business owners need to remember. The common misconception is that hackers don’t care for small businesses. The fact is that over 30 percent of cyber espionage attacks happen to small businesses.

Perhaps it’s the size of the business that makes people believe hackers would pass over these companies, but if the information of these businesses add up, they can be just as valuable to hackers.

Hackers are hungry for everything, from consumer information to financial records to business strategies. All this data can be sold for a substantial amount. What’s more, the safety of this information is what makes clients and employees trust the company. A single successful cyber espionage attack may be all it takes to ruin a company forever.

This is also why cybersecurity training for employees is important, even those in small businesses. They need to be aware of the possibility of an attack. A strong cybersecurity platform won’t matter if employees can’t discern threats. Everyone in the company, from the top down, needs to be briefed on the types of threats, especially the most lethal and most recent ones, and how to spot and handle them.

Michael Giuffrida is a managing partner at Titan Strategic Partners. He obtained his Business Management degree from the University of Connecticut and his Executive MBA from UConn’s School of Business. For more business tips and insights, visit this page.