Managed Security Will Protect Your Business from Cyberattacks
In the early 2000s, cyber-risks began to increase, but antivirus (AV) solutions kept small and medium-sized businesses safe. With AV updates, employee training, and software patching, most businesses were able to avoid the worst of cyberattacks—until now.
The WannaCry ransomware attacks were the industry’s wake-up call that cyberthreats are changing, and many companies still aren’t prepared. Many business owners know someone who’s been forced to pay a ransom to retrieve data or even faced an extinction event because data and systems were too costly to restore or weren’t restored as promised. Still others have experienced cleanup costs from other malware attacks.
Many business owners think they won’t be targeted due to their size or small attack surface. Yet as this chart shows, that simply isn’t the case. Cybercriminals increasingly target small business, as it much easier to circumnavigate their defenses than those of enterprise companies.
The Dirty Truth About Small Business Security
Yes, you are a target: 43% of all cyberattacks targeted small to medium-sized business operations in 2018. Source: https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/smb-study-reveals-majority-of-small-businesses-arent-taking-cyber-attacks-seriously/ (accessed Jan 2020)
Here’s why: Many cyberattackers see small business as an easy entry into their larger customers.
You may not know you’ve been hit: It takes companies an average of 279 days to realize they’ve been hit by a data breach, increasing the business harm. Source: IBM. https://databreachcalculator.mybluemix.net/ (accessed Jan 2020)
Small business clean-up costs are high: The average cost of a data breach for organizations with fewer than 500 employees was $2.74M in 2018. Source: https://databreachcalculator.mybluemix.net/ (accessed Jan 2020)
You may face an extinction event: Of the small business that are attacked, 60% never reopen. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ivywalker/2019/01/31/cybercriminals-haveyour-business-their-crosshairs-and-your-employees-are-in-cahoots-withthem/#31d432161953 (accessed Jan 2020)
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