When missiles fly overseas, malware often follows, and your small business might be squarely in the crosshairs. Collateral cyber risks tied to geopolitical tensions, such as the Iran–Israel conflict, no longer just affect governments and large corporations. Increasingly, hackers are targeting vulnerable points in the supply chain, including U.S. small businesses. Whether you’re running a dental clinic in Atlanta or a Shopify store out of Chicago, you may be in the cyber impact zone. Here’s what you need to know, and how to harden your digital defenses before it’s too late.
According to a June 18, 2025, alert from the IT-ISAC (Information Technology – Information Sharing and Analysis Center) and the Food and Agriculture ISAC, the situation is escalating rapidly. As Iranian cyber operations ramp up against Israel, there’s growing concern that innocent U.S. businesses might get caught in the digital shrapnel. Even if you’re not the primary target, you could still face collateral damage simply by being connected to the same cloud platforms, vendors, or software supply chains.
Why Collateral Cyber Risk Now Poses a Serious Threat
This isn’t fear-mongering, it’s reality. Think of the internet like a massive spider web. When one strand gets plucked, the vibration travels across the whole thing. Iranian cyber actors may be aiming their attacks at Israeli infrastructure, but those attacks can ricochet into allied infrastructure, shared platforms, or even unrelated networks through software vulnerabilities or compromised service providers. That right there is collateral cyber risk in action.
If your business touches a multinational supplier, uses a cloud service, or relies on third-party software with ties to Israeli or U.S. national infrastructure, you might be more connected than you think. Unfortunately, small businesses often lack the defensive depth needed to withstand that kind of shaking. That makes you a prime candidate for unintended fallout.
Small Businesses Are Often the Most Vulnerable to Collateral Cyber Risk
One big issue is most small businesses don’t have dedicated cybersecurity teams. If you’re like many business owners, cybersecurity is something you handle between customer calls and end-of-day paperwork. Problem is, hackers don’t care about your schedule. A phishing email that seems innocent could just be the tip of an attack originally intended for someone else but slipped sideways into your inbox.
Attackers love weak points. Let’s say a hacker compromises a large vendor targeting Israel, and that vendor also services U.S. clients, say … you. Suddenly, your systems are infected because your provider was hit. That’s how collateral cyber risk shows up without knocking. It doesn’t take a targeted attack to suffer serious consequences.
Key Cyber Defenses Every Small Business Needs to Bolster Now
If you’re wondering what you can actually do about this, good. That’s the right mindset. The ISAC alert includes several practical defenses, and none of them require a PhD in computer science. Let’s break them down:
Network Segmentation: This basically means dividing your internal systems into small, separate sections. If an attacker gets into one part, they can’t automatically wander into everything else. It’s like closing the doors in your house to stop a fire from spreading.
Enhanced Monitoring: You don’t need a mission control center in your basement, but you should have some form of alert system that tells you when something weird happens in your network. There are affordable tools that can watch for suspicious activity or failed login attempts.
Employee Phishing Awareness: Train your folks, smartly and regularly. Phishing is a tactic where attackers lure employees into clicking bad links or giving up passwords. If your team knows what to look out for, they won’t fall for as many traps.
Boost Readiness with Threat Sharing and Collaboration Networks
Most small businesses have no idea ISACs even exist. Information Sharing and Analysis Centers are groups organized by industry that swap real-time threat alerts, best practices, and intel between members. By joining one, you’re essentially plugging into a cybersecurity early-warning system tailored to your field.
The Food and Agriculture ISAC, for instance, is focused on businesses in those sectors, from farms to restaurants to distributors. They push out alerts as threats emerge, translating high-level threat data into doable steps for businesses like yours. You don’t have to swim alone in shark-infested waters. There’s safety in numbers.
Checklist: Your Collateral Cyber Risk Game Plan
If you want to safeguard your small business from the ripple effects of global hacks, it’s time to act. Here’s a battle-tested checklist to handle potential collateral cyber risk like a pro:
1. Segment Your Networks: Put critical systems (like payments and personnel info) in isolated zones. Don’t let everything live on one flat network.
2. Update and Test Your Incident Response Plan: This is your “what if” playbook, know who does what if things go sideways. Practice it once a quarter if you can.
3. Boost Your Detection and Logging Coverage: Make sure suspicious activity gets flagged. Logs are your black box; they help investigate what went wrong.
4. Run Phishing Drills Quarterly: Simulated phishing emails help your team recognize real attacks. Treat failure as a learning opportunity, not punishment.
5. Subscribe to Threat Alerts: Whether through the ISAC, your software vendors, or the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, get plugged into alert systems now.
6. Review Vendor and Supplier Security: Ask your IT and software vendors what they’re doing about heightened geopolitical threats. You want to know the folks you rely on are watching their backs too.
Don’t Sit Back and Hope You’re Safe
Look, I’ve worked with small businesses after ransomware has gutted payroll servers, cryptolockers have shut down delivery systems, and data leaks have tanked reputations. Almost every time, there was a chance to prevent or lessen the damage if action had come earlier. Don’t wait for the explosions to get closer. The threat isn’t hypothetical. It’s already at the edge of the fence line.
The good news? You don’t need to rebuild your whole business to protect it from collateral cyber risk. But you do need to treat this like a business risk worth budgeting for. Start small, make gradual improvements, and build toward resilience. There’s nothing glamorous about cyber hygiene, but it beats explaining to your customers why their data just hit the dark web.
Every small business has a role to play when cyber threats ripple across the globe. You don’t need to be a target to become a victim. But if you act deliberately today, you can stay off tomorrow’s casualty list. Start with basic protections, invest in awareness, and remember that being ready is the best defense against becoming a footnote in someone else’s cyber war.
You’ve heard from us, now we want to hear from you. Got questions or stories about cyber incidents you’ve weathered? Share in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more insights and practical advice tailored for small businesses.
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