- New Norton surveillance features arrive during a record increase in violations
- Dark web forums are increasingly exchanging commercial identifiers sensitive to alarming speed
- Social media scams are increasing, hitting small businesses where reputation is fragile
Small businesses face an increasingly difficult online environment, with financial and reputation threats emerging from unexpected directions.
The attackers become more precise in the way they target small organizations and individual influencers who often do not have the best protection of ransomware or defenses at the level of the company.
According to Norton, cyber violations targeting small businesses increased by more than 50% in 2025, and exposure to data increased in all 21% over the quarter.
Small businesses are increasingly taken in the cybercrime reticle
“Today, small businesses are targets like everyone else, and they need good tools to help protect them from very real threats,” said Deval Patel, head of small businesses at Gen.
To resolve this problem, Norton has expanded his security package to approach two major weaknesses: stolen commercial data circulating on the dark web and fraudulent activity on social media accounts.
The new version adds wider coverage for information that could easily be used against a company once exposed.
Its “Dark Web Survering” function now scans eight additional fields beyond personal details, including the name of the company, the tax identification number and VAT numbers.
If one of these identifiers appears on forums or underground markets, the owners receive an alert.
For companies that envisage a dark web VPN to protect activity, it becomes clear that surveillance alone is not a complete solution but a part of a wider safety puzzle.
“… by adding improved media surveillance to the web and social media, as well as our financial surveillance functionality, we extend this peace of mind in the fields where cyber-men are the fastest,” added Patel.
The idea is to give small businesses a chance to react before criminals exploit data for fraud or identity theft.
Although this expansion seems reassuring, it strongly depends on the speed with which online surface information compared to the Norton detection speed.
The second addition comes from “social media monitoring”, which focuses on Facebook and Instagram commercial profiles.
Norton claims that the system can report signs of taking control of the account, malicious ties and suspicious behavior before the account owner notices.
For small businesses based on these visibility or sales platforms, early warnings could reduce financial loss and reputation damage.
This type of protection also reaches influencers, who depend on their online presence to maintain partnerships and public confidence.
Given the increase in documented scams in the threat report of the first quarter of Gen, in particular fraudulent advertisements and false support regimes, social media management is increasingly linked to cybersecurity rather than simple brand or marketing.
The expansion of Norton shows that even very small businesses are now faced with risks once limited to large companies.
However, the effectiveness of these tools will depend on the speed, the precision of the real world and the question of whether the owners deal with alerts as usable signals rather than background noise.
