According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2023 2023 Business Impact Report, of the 551 US small business owners and employees interviewed, 73% reported a cyber-attack last year targeting employee and customer data.
Despite only 20-34% following cybersecurity best practices such as MFA, mandatory strong passwords or role-based access, 85% of respondents said they felt ready to respond to a cyber incident. 50% claimed to have taken steps to prevent future breaches through training (65%) and utilizing new security tools (53%).
Although the overall number of small businesses suffering a financial impact from a cyber-attack dropped three percentage points from last year to 42%, more respondents said they saw other impacts, such as customers losing trust (32%) and higher employee turnover (32%).
“The good news is that small business leaders are focused on data security and privacy protection. However, we still have a lot of work to do. We must accelerate the transition to newer protections and continue to develop new resources to assist victims based on solid research and unmistakable evidence,” ITRC president, Eva Velasquez said.
George McGregor, VP, Approov Mobile Security had this to say:
“This is disappointing, with very poor levels of implementation of basic best practices and only half of the companies taking steps to stop breaches.
“I also think the “good news” in the report – a reported reduced financial impact of breaches – is probably not to be taken too seriously either. If self-reported it may not be accurate.
“There will be more and more pressure on small businesses as new reporting requirements come into force and they will be forced to take the issue of cybersecurity more seriously.”
I deal with a number of small businesses. Some get cybersecurity and some think that they aren’t big enough to be to be a target. Or they don’t have the resources to make a serious effort in terms of protecting themselves. All of that is wrong and needs to change in a hurry before something happens that makes them rethink their stance on this.
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This entry was posted on October 26, 2023 at 8:45 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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73% Of Small Businesses Reported Cyber Attacks Last Year
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2023 2023 Business Impact Report, of the 551 US small business owners and employees interviewed, 73% reported a cyber-attack last year targeting employee and customer data.
Despite only 20-34% following cybersecurity best practices such as MFA, mandatory strong passwords or role-based access, 85% of respondents said they felt ready to respond to a cyber incident. 50% claimed to have taken steps to prevent future breaches through training (65%) and utilizing new security tools (53%).
Although the overall number of small businesses suffering a financial impact from a cyber-attack dropped three percentage points from last year to 42%, more respondents said they saw other impacts, such as customers losing trust (32%) and higher employee turnover (32%).
“The good news is that small business leaders are focused on data security and privacy protection. However, we still have a lot of work to do. We must accelerate the transition to newer protections and continue to develop new resources to assist victims based on solid research and unmistakable evidence,” ITRC president, Eva Velasquez said.
George McGregor, VP, Approov Mobile Security had this to say:
“This is disappointing, with very poor levels of implementation of basic best practices and only half of the companies taking steps to stop breaches.
“I also think the “good news” in the report – a reported reduced financial impact of breaches – is probably not to be taken too seriously either. If self-reported it may not be accurate.
“There will be more and more pressure on small businesses as new reporting requirements come into force and they will be forced to take the issue of cybersecurity more seriously.”
I deal with a number of small businesses. Some get cybersecurity and some think that they aren’t big enough to be to be a target. Or they don’t have the resources to make a serious effort in terms of protecting themselves. All of that is wrong and needs to change in a hurry before something happens that makes them rethink their stance on this.
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This entry was posted on October 26, 2023 at 8:45 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.