If you think your online business – no matter how small to mid-sized it may be – is flying below hackers’ radars, you’ve got another thing coming. While it may not be your turn right now and they might have not yet targeted you in particular, your small business website is within the majority when it comes to the type of sites that are most frequently hacked.

Although it is the news of big company hacks that makes the headlines, studies have shown that 71% of security breaches happen to small businesses – but they are less likely to be reported publicly. This means, sooner or later, it will be your turn. It also means, you should accept that fact and try all that you can to prevent it from happening.

Towards that end, let us see seven of the most common reasons why exactly it is that small businesses are particularly targeted by hackers:

1. Less Likely to be Discovered

Small businesses rarely have the expertise to discover any data breaches. They are usually run by people with more business than technology savvies. If the hackers are good, the business owners could go for years without realizing anything is wrong. As a matter of fact, the hackers rely on the chance that the websites’ owners won’t figure out they have been hacked.

2. Less Likely to Get in the News

Hackers, like most criminals who are good at what they do, avoid the limelight. They know their longevity in the game and the continued success in digital loot is only guaranteed as long as they are never discovered or exposed.

They therefore target smaller businesses knowing that the data breach – should it be discovered – won’t make it into the main news media streams. This guarantees their anonymity.

3. Less Likely to Get Investigated

Again, even if they are caught, the hackers know that there will be no officials breaking down their doors and putting them on the “most wanted” list. This is mainly, of course, due to the two points mentioned above: they are less likely to be discovered and even they are most business owners won’t bother to pursue legal actions about the hack.

This again, helps them stay on the loose.

4. Likely to be an Easy Target

Small businesses don’t have the budget to implement the elaborate security that most high-profile companies use. As a matter of fact, what little security that purely-online businesses use is usually set up by their hosting providers.

Now, while most hosting providers can be relied upon to protect their servers, and hence their clients, there are always a few of them that are caught off guard. It is these sorts of providers that the hackers seek out and attack.

5. Likely to have Inter-Communication Lapses

A popular way of doing business is to break the main process down into its basic elements and work on the decentralized and individual level.

For example, Marketing is responsible for one aspect, while Accounting runs another; this makes running the business easier as it cuts down on bureaucracy. But, if there are gaps between these departments, it could lead to weak points that hackers can exploit.

Data requests from Marketing to Accounting could be intercepted with a little code that is placed in that communication gap. Any unencrypted data requests from unverified sources could be easily hijacked by strategically placed malicious code.

6. Likely to have Underestimating Admins

One of the biggest mistakes a small business can make is to underestimate the value of the data that it holds. It doesn’t matter if it is “just” a client’s full name; any information that is stored in a business’ server can be used to cause substantial damage in terms of identity and financial theft.

Even if hackers don’t find all the information they require from one business, they can put together the pieces from multiple hacks to come up with a more complete picture.

Small businesses should never forget that data is data. It doesn’t matter if it is held by them or multinational companies: it is still valuable to one hacker or the other and just as damaging to any client.

Most of the time, the only difference between the data stored on the servers of the bigger companies and that of the SMBs is the amount, and nothing more.

7. Likely to be Trusting of all Current and Ex-Employees

Contrary to popular belief, all hackers aren’t socially dysfunctional, hoodie-wearing, twenty-somethings sitting in a dark basement and drinking endless cans of energy drinks. They are in fact more likely to be the clean-shaven, tie-totting accounting whiz that was let go and didn’t think it was a fair decision.

Yes, most attacks come from employees of the business who know their way around the network and servers. They know where the critical information is stored and they also have the privileges required to access them.

Disgruntled employees are a dangerous source of data leaks – be they current or former ones – and businesses should always keep an eye on who accesses what data while they are employed and make sure that all privileges are revoked and their accounts are deleted once they have left.