Busting two cybersecurity myths that many small and mid-size businesses believe in.
4/03/2023 11:00 A.M.
Many small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) mistakenly believe they are too small to be a target for cybercriminals—and that they can’t afford good cybersecurity. Let’s bust those myths now.
You are NOT too small to be a target for a cyber attack. If you have sensitive data, you’re a target.
Some stats to consider:
- 61% of SMBs were the target of a cyberattack in 2021.*
- 82% of ransomware attacks in 2021 were against companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. **
- Employees of small businesses experience 350% more social engineering attacks than those at larger enterprises.***
- 87% of small businesses have customer data that could be compromised in an attack.****
Cyber adversaries love SMBs because they prefer what they perceive as low-hanging fruit. So now that you know you are not too small to be the next victim of a cyber-attack, let’s bust the second prevalent myth: cybersecurity is too expensive for me to afford.
According to the CYE’s new Cybersecurity Maturity Report 2023, companies can still achieve a high cybersecurity maturity posture without a large budget. The report found that small- and medium-sized organizations had better cybersecurity maturity scores than organizations with over 10,000 employees. Managed services providers like TPx have experts on staff who are available 24/7 and can take a burden off your IT teams, usually for less than doing it in-house.
With a growing number of regulations, including the upcoming FTC Safeguards Rule, having proper safeguards in place becomes less of a choice. We encourage businesses of all sizes to act sooner than later, as every day of having exposed systems can result in serious consequences. Some 75% of SMBs polled in an SMBRS survey said they’d be able to survive only three to seven days following a ransomware attack.
If you want to instantly augment your IT team or get help with cybersecurity, go to tpx.com/aca to get started.
* 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report | Verizon
** Law enforcement pressure forces ransomware groups to refine tactics in Q4 2021
*** Spear-phishing report: Social engineering and growing complexity of attacks – Journey Notes
**** 51% of small business admit to leaving customer data unsecure – Digital.com
