Companies with fewer than 1,000 employees are far more likely than larger organizations to be a target of cyber crime, and far less likely to bounce back from a data breach.
The Aberdeen Group says the risk of a single data breach is 63% higher for SMBs than it is for larger organizations with over 1,000 employees. In fact, a US National Cyber Security Alliance study found that more than 70% of cyber attacks target small businesses, and that as many as 60% of SMBs that do get hacked go out of business after six months.
SMBs don’t understand what an attractive target they make. They don’t usually have the cybersecurity resources of a larger company, which makes them low-hanging fruit for crooks looking for the most rewards for their effort. They also think they’re too small to worry about social engineering and web-based attacks—but the Ponemon Institute says those are the most common ways that cyber criminals target SMBs.
Your data may not be as plentiful or your bank accounts as full as a large enterprise’s, but to cyber criminals, something is still better than nothing, especially if you’re also a way for them to slip through the defenses of your larger business partners. Investigate Xantrion’s turnkey Managed Security service, that covers everything from user security training and incident response planning to security patching and mobile device management, to learn how to better defend yourself.
