Life After the Hack
Kalamazoo, MI | October 28, 2025
Behind every company is a person.
Think of a small business owner. Someone who believed deeply enough in an idea to stake their savings, their sleep, and sometimes their sanity on an idea that no one else believed in.
These people aren’t faceless CEOs or distant executives. They’re the ones mopping floors after closing, answering emails at midnight, and hoping next month’s revenue will cover payroll.
For this person, when the business suffers, they suffer. But with all the headlines of the latest corporation that’s been hacked, it’s easy to forget about people like this small business owner.
That’s why I want to do something a little different today. Today, I want to talk about the human element of getting hacked.
Why SMBs (Actually) Get Hacked
There are thousands of ways a cyberattack can happen, and tens of thousands of reasons why. But at the end of it all, there’s only one root cause: the safety net failed.
And most of the time, that safety net failed because it was never truly safe at all—and business owners know it.
Despite 78% of business owners fearing a cyberattack would put them out of business, only 14% have a dedicated cybersecurity plan.
Why?
Because it’s hard to make cybersecurity a priority when you haven’t been targeted yet.
“As we were such a small business I didn’t even think of having security measures in place,” writes the owner of a small clothing shop. “But paying… for cyber security was not our priority at all and is certainly something I will regret for the rest of my life.”
For business owners like this one, there are more important priorities than cybersecurity. Sometimes, just keeping the lights on is a struggle.
And it’s easy for SMBs to feel like they can fly under the radar. After all, they aren’t as well-known or as profitable as big players. Right?
Well, as it turns out, that’s exactly what attackers look for.
“It’s because you’re the little guy that you’re of interest. Hackers love small businesses [because] they don’t have the resources to put in high-end cybersecurity protection and they may not be consciously aware they are a target.”
When the Attack Happens
When the cyberattack hits, it usually doesn’t sink in all at once. Instead, there’s a moment of confusion.
Orders stop processing. The website goes down. Customer data starts vanishing; or worse, gets posted somewhere it shouldn’t. Maybe an employee can’t log in, or an unfamiliar message flashes across the screen demanding payment in exchange for access to everything.
At first, the business owner assumes it’s a glitch. Maybe the internet’s down, or the hosting platform’s having an outage. But then the realization sets in: this isn’t temporary. This is a breach.
The passwords aren’t working because someone else changed them. The files are encrypted because someone else locked them.
Panic hits fast. The phone starts ringing. Customers are asking why their credit cards were charged twice, or why their data was leaked online.
The staff doesn’t know what to do. There’s no IT department to call, no incident response team on standby. Just the owner, sitting in front of a screen full of broken systems, trying to Google “what to do after a cyberattack” while the damage unfolds in real time.
For small business owners, that isolation is one of the hardest parts. They’re used to being resourceful—fixing problems, figuring things out—but a hack is different. It’s invasive. It’s humiliating. And it’s happening faster than they can keep up.
- An employee clicks a phishing link.
- Malware installs quietly in the background.
- Passwords and files are stolen.
- Data is encrypted, and a ransom message appears.
- Operations halt.
Picking Up the Pieces
When the dust settles, the losses start coming into focus. Customer trust is gone. Orders are frozen. Bank accounts might be compromised. The business may owe notification letters to every affected customer, which can cost thousands alone. Then comes the reputational damage; reviews mentioning “security issues,” local customers staying away, vendors hesitating to work with them again.
And yet, in all of it, the business owner isn’t treated like a victim.
For most SMBs, there’s no sympathy and no system of support. If they file a police report, the police are rarely able to help them. If they turn to their insurance company, they might learn their policy doesn’t actually cover cyber incidents. Or worse, that their cybersecurity measures were deemed insufficient for a payout.
They’re left to rebuild on their own.
One owner of a small cosmetics company, Melissa Haddad, said she felt “shame” for being hacked.
“I felt like everything suddenly has flopped and we missed the opportunity to build momentum around launch when the novelty and excitement of a new brand is already there.”
A single breach can cost tens of thousands of dollars and months of downtime. And for a company like DEIA Cosmetics, that’s exactly what happened.
“Based on that week’s sales prior to the hack,” Melissa continued, “we would have lost potential sales revenue of around $25,000 a month, if not more as we haven’t been able to scale… I felt like everything suddenly has flopped and we missed the opportunity to build momentum around launch when the novelty and excitement of a new brand is already there.”
Cybersecurity Saves Livelihoods
It’s easy to look at cybersecurity as a technical problem (and it is). But it’s something more than that, too.
At its core, cybersecurity is a human issue. It’s about protecting the people behind the businesses, the livelihoods that depend on them, and the communities they serve.
The good news is that real help exists. Affordable, managed cybersecurity solutions are available, and education has never been more accessible.
For more information, click here to contact our cybersecurity professionals today.
