Small businesses are often extremely reliant on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to market themselves and build a loyal customer base. However, these small operations are at a big disadvantage when it comes to cybersecurity — and Facebook doesn’t necessarily have the incentive to help protect them.

Because small businesses don’t have the resources of large companies, they don’t necessarily have the security in place to protect themselves from bad actors. That’s what makes them “low hanging fruit,” according to cybersecurity expert Joseph Steinberg.

“Criminals are in the business of stealing, so you’re going to go where you can make money and get away with it. And social media accounts of small businesses are like a gold mine,” Steinberg told CNBC.

And to make matters worse, after small business owners have been hacked, Facebook often offers little in the way of support. It’s expensive and time-consuming to help every single small business, so companies like Facebook often focus on helping protect large corporations instead.

It is often better for social media companies from a purely bottom line to ignore small businesses when they have problems,” Steinberg continued.

This is obviously hugely unfair, and deeply harmful to entrepreneurs. However, there are simple steps that small business owners can take to watch out for scammers and protect themselves online. If Facebook won’t do it, sometimes users must step up and do it themselves.

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