SMBs start taking security seriously
Tired of being the main target of cybercriminals and other mean characters of the virtual world, SMBs are reconsidering their stand of security and starting to seriously apply it to their corporate infrastructures. These are the finding of a new survey conducted by Applied Research and published by Symantec. The new report shows that SMBs views have drastically changed over the past year, leading to more spendings on IT security and giving security policies a higher priority.
“Last year when we conducted this survey, a lot of SMBs were very confident in their security posture, but they weren’t always clear on the threat,” says Monica Girolami, senior product marketing manager at Symantec, who worked with Applied Research on the study. “This year they realize that they have gaps in their security stance, and they’re getting more serious — in fact, they rated data loss and cyberattacks as their top risks, even above natural disasters.”
If you’re wondering why this major shift, ask your self no more! It’s a mere cause and effect phenomenon: 42% of SMBs have lost data and the cost of a breach exceeds 188,000 USD. So insted of paying for the damages, better invest less in security and prevent them. Although it is happening rather late, it is still a smart move!
The respondents ranked data loss and cyberattacks 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.
