Small Businesses Overly Confident of Cybersecurity Defenses, Says Research

Small businesses are becoming a favorite hacking target of cyber criminals, and that’s largely because of lackluster defenses, according to a new report.

Cybersecurity company BullGuard’s survey of more than 3,000 small business owners revealed that an alarming amount of small businesses are not prepared for an attack on their computer networks.

According to the report, one-third of companies with 50 or fewer employees use free, consumer-grade cybersecurity solutions, while one in five companies use no endpoint security at all.

About 43% of small business owners have absolutely no cybersecurity defense plan in place, opening up their customers, employees and livelihood to cyber criminals.

In a statement, Paul Lipman, CEO of BullGuard, said that’s precisely why small businesses are often targeted.

“Caught between inadequate consumer solutions and overly complex enterprise software, many small business owners may be inclined to skip cybersecurity,” he said.  “It only takes one attack, however, to bring a business to its knees.”

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The study also found that many small business owners are naïve about potential cyber attacks, as 60% of business owners surveyed believe their business is unlikely to be targeted while 18.5% of business owners said they have suffered from a cyber attack or data breach within the past year.

Those that didn’t have adequate defenses in places and fell victim to an attack had to pay up to get their business back up and running, the report found.

Once breached, a quarter of business owners surveyed said they had to spend $10,000 or more to resolve the attack.

Recovering from an attack also takes time away from your business, as 50% of business owners said it took at least a day to recover, a quarter said they lost business and 40% said they lost crucial data.

The report revealed more naivety on the part of small business owners, as just one in five said there are no vulnerabilities in their company, but half of them said their employees don’t receive cybersecurity training.

Despite a majority saying they manage cybersecurity in-house, less than 10% said they have a dedicated IT person.

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