If you think cyberattacks primarily target large corporations for a bigger payoff, think again. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (VDBI), showed that 71% of attacks actually hit small to mid-sized business (SMBs), specifically ones with fewer than 100 employees.
Sadly, it’s easy for SMBs to be cybersecurity ostriches, hiding our heads in the ground and ignoring the looming risks. Robert Siciliano, security expert for McAfee, said most SMBs “typically don’t have the resources to secure their networks to the degree a large enterprise would. But the information on their networks—and access to their bank accounts—still makes them a big target.” McAfee competitor Symantec offered similar findings, confirming over 80% of the SMBs they surveyed have no formal cybersecurity plan in place.
It typically comes down to a resource issue. Large companies and corporations invest heavily in security, significantly lowering their risk of attack. SMBs on the other hand, don’t feel they have the budget or capacity, and so they very often don’t commit the resources to properly safeguard their networks and data. With customer information and operations-dependent data exposed, SMBs are seen as sitting ducks for cybercriminals. Simply put, those businesses which understand the threats that inadequate cybersecurity poses tend to invest heavily. Those who don’t, don’t.
Here’s a quick lesson for those less versed in the world of cybercrime. The average cost of an SMB-targeted cyberattack is reported to be close to $200,000—and that’s not even the most daunting statistic. The National Archive & Records Administration in Washington D.C. estimates that 93% of SMBs that lose data for 10+ days file for bankruptcy within one year. That’s 9 out of 10 businesses defunct within a year of an attack. But most don’t wait that long. Half will file immediately.
With the increasing risk of cyberattack converging with the increased availability of customer information and data, SMBs can no longer bear the risk of delaying the implementation of security safeguards. We’ve found there are three obvious and immediate things SMBs can do to get in a secure mindset, and start protecting themselves:
At Dynamic Quest, we differentiate from other managed IT service providers with our commitment to industry-leading, best-in-class cybersecurity protection as a core part of the services we provide. We employ Unified Threat Management (UTM), an all-in-one security solution and model, to ensure our clients have a fully-integrated, multifaceted approach to protect themselves against network threats. We invest in and provide these optimized and more secure solutions as a base component of our managed services because we believe that our clients’ IT infrastructure and business continuity is too important to leave to less-than-optimal cybersecurity measures. We also provide targeted security managed and Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) plans to laser-focus efforts on keeping your network and environment safe.
If you’re exploring options, or simply want to know more about the state of your security, give us a shout. For a free, and truly no obligation cybersecurity consult, contact us through the form below. We’ll get in touch and set up a time to review your current infrastructure, and may include a network security scan and review for pin-pointing those security risks specific to you and your company. We’re happy to help any way we can.
As always, stay safe out there.
The internal team was energized. With the Level 1 work off its plate, the team turned its attention to the work that fueled company growth and gave them job satisfaction.
40% of businesses will incorporate the anywhere operations model to accommodate the physical and digital experiences of both customers and employees (Techvera).
The three sectors with the biggest spending on cybersecurity are banking, manufacturing, and the central/federal government, accounting for 30% of overall spending (IDC).
Forty-three percent of attacks are aimed at SMBs, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves (Accenture).
The average cost of a data breach in the United States is $8.64 million, which is the highest in the world, while the most expensive sector for data breach costs is the healthcare industry, with an average of $7.13 million (IBM).
The cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025, according to the latest version of the Cisco/Cybersecurity Ventures “2022 Cybersecurity Almanac.”.
More than 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals by 2023, an increase of 175% from 2018.
It takes an average of 287 days for security teams to identify and contain a data breach, according to the “Cost of a Data Breach 2021” report released by IBM and Ponemon Institute.
We did a proof of concept that met every requirement that our customer might have. In fact, we saw a substantial improvement.
We did everything that we needed to do, financially speaking. We got our invoices out to customers, we deposited checks, all the things we needed to do to keep our business running, and our customers had no idea about the tragedy. It didn’t impact them at all.
“We believe our success is due to the strength of our team, the breadth of our services, our flexibility in responding to clients, and our focus on strategic support.”