Small And Medium-Sized Businesses Getting Serious About Security, Says Study
In the study of 2,500 executives with responsibility for IT security — half from companies of under 100 employees and half from companies in the 100-499 employee range — the researchers found new concern over the risk of data loss.
The respondents ranked data loss and cyber attacks as their top business risks, ahead of traditional criminal activity, natural disasters and terrorism, according to the report. SMBs are now spending an average of $51,000 a year — and two thirds of IT staff time –working on information protection, including computer security, backup, recovery, and archiving as well as disaster preparedness.
Loss of critical business information threatens SMBs, Trinity says. Seventy-four percent of the respondents said they are somewhat or extremely concerned about losing electronic information. In fact, 42 percent have lost confidential or proprietary information in the past. All of companies that lost data reported seeing direct financial losses, such as lost revenue or costs in money or goods. One of the main issues for SMBs is lost devices. Almost two-thirds of businesses polled said they had lost devices — such as laptops, smartphones or iPads — in the past 12 months. All of the respondents have at least some devices that have no password protection and cannot be remotely wiped of their data. SMBs also are worried about cyberattacks, the study says. Seventy-three percent of the respondents were victims of cyberattacks in the past year. Thirty percent of those attacks were deemed somewhat or extremely successful. All of the victims saw losses — such as downtime, loss of important corporate data, or loss of personally identifiable information of customers or employees. These losses led to direct costs for all respondents, such as lost productivity, lost revenue, and loss of customer trust, the researchers said.
The average cost of a breach in an SMB was $188,242, according to the study.
SMBs that fear such breaches and costs should take precautions in the near term, George says. “Educate your employees on the threats,” he advises. “Identify your most sensitive data, find out where it’s stored and protect it. Secure your email and Web assets.
SMBs are beginning to recognize that they can be targeted just as easily as their larger counterparts, George says. “In fact, they may be even more at risk, because in general, they don’t have as many resources to fight back,” he says. “But they’re moving in the right direction.”
“We at Trinity can secure your Data”, Says George. Log on to www.trifuturein.com for more information.
