SHARE

12 Key Facts About SMBs’ Cyber-security Needs

Data breach 12 Key Facts About SMBs’ Cyber-security Needs No company, big or small, is immune to a cyber-attack or data breach. New research suggests why SMBs need to up the ante when it comes to security protection. SMB Targets 55% of respondents said their companies have experienced a cyber-attack, and 50% had data breaches […]

Written By: Gina Roos

Jul 15, 2016

Channel Insider content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Data breach

12 Key Facts About SMBs’ Cyber-security Needs

No company, big or small, is immune to a cyber-attack or data breach. New research suggests why SMBs need to up the ante when it comes to security protection.

SMB Targets

55% of respondents said their companies have experienced a cyber-attack, and 50% had data breaches involving customer and employee information in the past 12 months.

Biggest Threats

Top threats to SMBs are Web-based attacks, according to 49% of respondents, and phishing/social engineering (43%).

Root Causes

The most common causes for cyber-attacks include negligent employees or contractors (48%) and third-party mistakes (41%). Almost one-third of respondents said they could not determine what caused the incident.

Biggest Concerns

66% of respondents said customer records are their biggest concern, followed by worries about intellectual property protection (49%).

Cost of Breaches

Companies spent an average of $879,582 due to the damage or theft of IT assets. Disruption to normal operations cost an average of $955,429.

Low Confidence

Only 14% of companies rate their ability to mitigate cyber-risks, vulnerabilities and attacks highly effective, and 33% said the technologies currently used can detect and block most cyber-attacks.

Security Defense

60% of respondents rely on strong passwords and/or biometrics to reduce the risks of attack. However, 59% do not have visibility into employees’ password practices and 65% said that if they have a password policy, they don’t strictly enforce it.

Security Tech

Anti-malware (90%) and client firewalls (86%) are considered the most important security technologies, followed by password protection and management (71%), and VPN and other secure Web gateways (61%).

Security Barriers

The biggest roadblocks to a stronger cyber-security posture include a lack of personnel to mitigate cyber-risks (67%), insufficient budget (54%) and insufficient security technologies (44%).

MSSP Partners

As a result of the roadblocks, some companies engage managed security service providers to support an average of 34% of their IT security operations.

Top MSSP Services

Top services MSSPs provide include monitoring or managing firewalls or intrusion prevention systems (74%), managing or monitoring security gateways for messaging or Web traffic (50%), and monitoring or managing intrusion detection systems (47%).

Bigger Targets

52% of respondents believe cyber-attacks are becoming more targeted, and 51% said cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and more severe in terms of negative consequences.

12 Key Facts About SMBs’ Cyber-security Needs

Gina Roos

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories