As the calendar moves into the final months of 2025, it’s important to look back at how the landscape of cybersecurity and threats has changed throughout the year. We do this so business owners, like you, can know where the biggest threats are and how to help shore up your business.

With cybercriminals utilizing smarter tools, AI-powered attacks, and social engineering scams, the simple matter of fact is that cybersecurity is essential for small and medium sized businesses. With 60% of small businesses closing within 6 months of a successful cyberattack, proper cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue, but it’s now a business survival issue.

The good news for business leaders and owners looking to up their cybersecurity measures for the end of 2025 and into 2026 is that you can know the biggest threats and how to build a proactive plan to protect your business.

The Biggest Threats Small Businesses Have Faced in 2025

If the first thing that comes to mind for “cyberattacks” is the old spam pop-ups and simple viruses, then this will be a wake-up call for you and your business. Today’s attacks are far faster, more personal, and quite often powered by AI.

Of the top threats that businesses have faced in 2025, these threats include:

• AI-driven phishing emails that mimic real clients, vendors, or products that your business uses.
• Fake “vishing” phone calls from attackers claiming to be associated with a product or service your business utilizes.
• Ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), where low-level hackers can rent tools to attack businesses to steal and lock important data and whole databases.
• Deepfake scams that use realistic voice or video impersonations of executives and decision-makers.
• Cloud account breaches for businesses and accounts that have access to sensitive data without multi-factor authentication (MFA) activated.

These five types of attacks are just a few of the major ways small and medium sized businesses have suffered successful cyberattacks this year, but the common theme stands clear: one wrong click or response can halt operations, compromise data, and cripple your business.

With the identification of some of the top ways businesses like yours have come under attack from cybercriminals, let’s dive in and discuss four practical ways you can begin to protect your business.

Protection #1: The Human Firewall

As a metal chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so, too, is a business’ cybersecurity only as strong as it’s least-trained employee. After all, most of the cyberattacks and breaches companies suffer are at the hands of well-meaning employees who were tricked or duped into handing over access and information.

With this in mind, it’s important to build a human firewall for your business, training your employees (and yourself) on the current threats in the world of cybersecurity. On top of this practice, ensuring that your employees are practicing safe cybersecurity practices.

There are a few best practices that you can put in place to begin to build confidence and security within your business:

• Run security awareness training to train and inform employees. This should be done more than once a year.
• Enlist a program or team to run simulated phishing emails to employees to test real-world reactions and see who needs more training
• Make reporting suspicious messages quick and judgement free by identifying a proper chain of command.
• Build a cybersecurity action plan that details whom to contact and/or call in the case of a cyberattack, regardless its size.

If you put these practices into place, you will begin to create a culture of awareness for cybersecurity threats and attacks, setting your business up for more successful prevention of a future attack.

Protection #2: The Technological Foundation

Beyond the human element, modern cybersecurity measures require multiple layers of protection. While keeping your employees updated with trainings and protocols, your technology essentials will add those extra layers to further protect your business from bad actors.

Start with the cybersecurity essentials across your business:

• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all accounts possible to stop 99% of unauthorized logins.
• Acquire and enable Advanced Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools on all computers and laptops to monitor, detect, and respond to threats and breaches in real time.
• Regularly patch and update devices and software to close the door on known vulnerabilities.
  • If a device can’t be updated, then it’s likely time to replace it!
• Prepare for the worst-case scenario through data encryption and off-site backups.

To build a resilient foundation for your business, it all comes down to the resiliency of your infrastructure. These four essentials will begin to give your business the ability to withstand and repel modern attacks.

Protection #3: Plan for “When,” Not “If”

To best protect your business, it’s important to plan for the “when” your business will fall victim to a successful cyberattack. Yes, even with the most money, the best tools, the air-tight practices, incidents still happen. From large tech firms to world governments, successful cyberattacks occur every day. If your business approaches cybersecurity with the mindset of “If” an attack happens, then you’ve already put yourself on the back foot.

Take the steps now to do the following:

• Create an incident response plan that outlines who does what in the event of a breach.
• Test your plan at least twice a year.
• Update the plan as things change, such as people to contact or protocol to follow. Waiting or failing to update the plan is a disaster waiting to happen!

If you take these steps now, your business will have faster recoveries and less downtime in the event of a cyberattack.

Protection #4: Partner with an IT Provider

It might be tempting to stop reading here. After all, you might be laughing to yourself as you close the tab, saying, “And there, tucked away in the suggestions, is that dreaded sales pitch to spend money on an external IT service!” We wouldn’t blame you if you did just that, but before you do, do you know how much the average cyberattack costs?

While the exact numbers vary, many small businesses face tens of thousands of dollars in direct costs when they suffer a cyberattack, with some studies finding upwards of $40,000 for just costs alone. That doesn’t even consider the full ripple effect that damages reputation, loses customers, and the total downtime for your business. In fact, as we stated earlier, 60% of small businesses close within 6 months of a cyberattack.

Now, could your business survive paying that much money to fix an attack while suffering the blowback? What we want for your business, as we want for all businesses that we work with both in Stroudsburg, PA, and beyond, is that they have the proper measures, tools, and the best partner to help protect them and reduce the financial burden in the event of a successful cyberattack.

By partnering with a managed IT provider, you’ll get:

• Ongoing monitoring and protection.
• Access to enterprise-level security tools… and a team to manage them!
• Expert guidance tailored to your business and industry.
• Strategic partners who stay alert to the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.

Having proper IT infrastructure isn’t just a recommendation anymore; it’s a necessity. A dedicated managed IT provider can give your business enterprise-level security for a fraction of the cost… all with included benefits that go beyond cybersecurity into the realm of support, consultation, and expertise!

Make 2026 the Year of Proactive Cybersecurity

Cyber threats are constantly growing, but so are the tools to stop them. A “backseat” approach to cybersecurity may have been possible in years past when technology was not as advanced as it is today, but in the world of AI-driven tools, that approach only opens up your business to the possibility of attacks and breaches. It is not an “if” you get attacked; it’s a “when.”

A proactive approach to cybersecurity will keep your business resilient, compliant, and trustworthy. To do this, small to medium sized businesses in Stroudsburg, PA, and the surrounding Pennsylvania and New Jersey regions should look to partner with a dedicated and professional managed IT services provider to ensure that their business is secure and protected, even in the event of a breach or leak.

At Marvel IT Services, we help businesses identify, implement, and maintain security strategies built for the current threats and tomorrow’s challenges.

Ready for the year of cybersecurity? Together, let’s make the end of your 2025 and whole 2026 more cybersecure.