Cyberattacks surge to 61% of small and medium-sized businesses, says study
Cyberattacks surge to 61% of small and medium-sized businesses, says study
Your email has been sent
A poll of security software buyers shows 39% of small and medium-sized businesses lost customer data due to cyberattacks.
More than half of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. and U.K. faced a successful cyberattack in the last year, according to a June 2023 study from security company BlackFog.
Jump to:
The biggest impact of a successful cyberattack was business downtime, the study found. Of the 400 IT decision-makers at small and medium-sized businesses who responded to the study, 58% experienced business downtime due to a cyberattack. In addition, 39% of respondents lost customer data due to a cyberattack, and one-third reported a loss of customers.
“Cybercriminals naturally gravitate towards targeting organizations with the lowest level of protection, and this typically means small to medium businesses come under fire,” said Dr. Darren Williams, the founder and chief executive officer of BlackFog, in a press release.
Attackers tended to target the same businesses twice, with 87% of IT decision-makers stating they experienced two or more successful attacks in the past year. BlackFog noted that 89% of all attacks the company studied involved data exfiltration of some kind.”Existing defensive-based approaches are no longer enough for today’s polymorphic attacks, leveraging data exfiltration as the main weapon of choice,” said Williams.
SEE: Businesses of all sizes should also watch out for social engineering and distributed denial of service attacks.
BlackFog found that SMBs need high security standards and more understanding of the security challenges they face.Survey respondents said they were most concerned about malware attacks (50%) and ransomware and password attacks (32% each).
Many IT decision-makers (41%) at SMBs said a lack of knowledge of what cyberthreats might impact their business was the biggest challenge to effective protection.
In an email to TechRepublic, Williams pointed out that businesses may feel that it is too expensive to employ people with cybersecurity skills in-house; this makes it even more important for the decision-makers to choose external security partners carefully.
Most respondents (87%) to the survey said they feel the IT providers they work with focus on understanding the cybersecurity challenges businesses face. However, this understanding is not complete, with only 39% of respondents saying their IT providers understand all of the security challenges SMBs face.
Many SMBs took high security standards into account when choosing IT partners, with more than one-third of respondents (38%) choosing high security standards as the main determining factor when choosing a managed security provider.
“Most [managed service providers] adhere to a standard formula and use the same tools and approaches they always have,” Williams told TechRepublic. “More advanced providers are constantly evolving and adopting new technologies to stay ahead of the latest threat vectors. Ask the vendor when was the last time they adopted a new technology or what they do to prevent data exfiltration. If they answer ‘firewall,’ then it’s time to move on.”
Strengthen your organization’s IT security defenses by keeping abreast of the latest cybersecurity news, solutions, and best practices.
Cyberattacks surge to 61% of small and medium-sized businesses, says study
Your email has been sent
Your message has been sent
TechRepublic Premium content helps you solve your toughest IT issues and jump-start your career or next project.
Get up and running with ChatGPT with this comprehensive cheat sheet. Learn everything from how to sign up for free to enterprise use cases, and start using ChatGPT quickly and effectively.
Get the most out of your payroll budget with these free, open source payroll software options. We’ve evaluated the top eight options, giving you the information you need to make the right choice.
We highlight some of the best certifications for DevOps engineers. Learn more about DevOps certifications.
With so many project management software options to choose from, it can seem daunting to find the right one for your projects or company. We’ve narrowed them down to these ten.
This Microsoft PowerToys app simplifies the process of visualizing and modifying the contents of the standard Windows Registry file.
Strengthen your organization’s IT security defenses by keeping abreast of the latest cybersecurity news, solutions, and best practices.
Recruiting a mainframe systems programmer candidate with the right combination of technical and industry experience will require a comprehensive screening process. This hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium provides a flexible framework your business can use to find the right person for the job. From the hiring kit: INTRODUCTION In general, mainframe systems programmers take responsibility …
Computer hardware engineers design and create the physical components that make computers, smartphones, sensors and other digital devices run. Because of the meticulous nature of their work, the best candidates must have an inherent ability to focus on the task at hand. This hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium provides a workable framework you can use …
A cryptographer uses their expertise in mathematics and computer science to develop algorithms, ciphers and other encryption systems to protect sensitive data. It can be a difficult position to fill. This hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium provides a workable framework you can use to find the best cryptographer candidate for your business. It includes a …
The reassignment of existing equipment takes place when employees leave the organization or receive new computers, mobile devices, printers and other assets. It is essential to follow strict guidelines for equipment reassignment so that company investments, data and privacy are protected. The following checklist from TechRepublic Premium will help ensure that all the appropriate steps …
source
