How cloud-native payroll platforms give SMEs a security boost.
“It won’t happen to us because we’re too small.”
Many small and medium-sized businesses rely on this logic when it comes to cybercrime risks. Surely criminals will target a business that is larger, promising a handsome payoff for their efforts. Why would they care to go after a small company when there are much larger fish to target?
Unfortunately, this is a dangerous myth. Online criminals frequently target small businesses, and they often focus on payroll software.
“There are two things that every business should think about for security. First, large businesses can afford tougher security, which makes them harder to attack. Second, criminals don’t just want money. They often want data such as personal and banking details, which they can resell to other criminal groups for fraud or identity theft. That makes a payroll system very attractive because it contains all that information,” says Clyde van Wyk, Director at Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace.
SMEs are targets
Small businesses are not too small to avoid attacks. Instead, they are prime targets. Cybercrime Magazine recently reported that in 2025, four out of five small businesses were victims of a breach last year, and that they experience 350% more social engineering or impersonation attacks than large enterprises.
Payroll systems are often the target. For example, last year, Microsoft Threat Intelligence uncovered “payroll pirate” attacks against universities that hijack and divert salaries. Changing deposit or bank routing details is common, but not all attacks focus on this type of fraud. Some attackers encrypt payroll data just before a salary processing window, putting the business under pressure to pay a ransom. Others threaten to release salary information publicly, undermining competitiveness and staff relationships.
Many simply want access to the payroll system because of its business proximity, says Van Wyk.
“If you think you have nothing worth stealing, look at it from the perspective of your payroll system. It shares information with your finance and HR systems. Here’s a simple example: your payroll has your employees’ email addresses. The information can use that to target employees with phishing attacks. Just like that, they might get access to sales data, customer records, executive travel details. Getting into payroll and HR opens many doors for them.”
Can SMEs be cyber safe?
Yet knowing about threats doesn’t make security any more affordable, and spending more on security doesn’t make a business impervious. However, a small business can improve payroll and HR security without footing an enormous bill.
Criminals look for soft targets, typically older or unpatched software with only basic security features. A modern subscription-based payroll platform service adds significant security at lower costs:
Small businesses don’t have to worry about patching their payroll systems. They pay a subscription fee to access the software platform, which the software vendor maintains.
The payroll platform employs teams dedicated to tracking cybercrime trends and vulnerability reports.
Since the vendor can push updates to the payroll software, it includes and improves features such as multi-factor authentication.
Payroll platforms provide role-based access and separation of duties; when applied correctly, these measures limit what criminals can access even if they get in.
Regular reports, clear audit trails, and approval workflows help prevent and detect fraudulent system changes.
The payroll and HR platform can run backups on the vendor’s side. While clients are responsible for their data backups, this additional layer can prevent more damage if something goes wrong.
Leading payroll platform vendors have 24/7 infrastructure monitoring with automated alerting, strong encryption, and are certified for standards such as ISO 27001 data security controls, SOC 1 & SOC 2 compliance, and global privacy law compliance such as POPIA and GDPR.
SMEs are still accountable for their security, such as training their staff in cyber hygiene and creating policies to support features like multi-factor authentication. Responsible software providers support their efforts with payroll and HR platforms that embed security at the foundation, and take a role in helping their customers fine-tune the payroll software, says Van Wyk.
“Your payroll vendor must show you they take security seriously. It’s not enough if they say, ‘We have this many security people and encryption and such things.’ They should also help you design roles, provide training for staff, and be on hand to answer your questions. This will take considerable pressure from the business and make sure you get full value from your payroll software.”
