SMB security in the spotlight

Cisco has unveiled its SMB Cybersecurity Report, which leverages data from 1,816 SMB respondents across 26 countries. The study provides an understanding of the risks smaller organizations face and how SMBs stack up against their peers with respect to security. The report also shares some guidance for these organizations to bear in mind in 2018 and beyond.

Thursday, 27th September 2018 Posted 5 years ago in by Phil Alsop

According to the report, 53 percent of the respondents experienced a breach. These data breaches often times have lasting financial impact on a company, including lost revenue, customers, and opportunities, as well as the expenses to clean up after the breach.

Other notable highlights from the report include:

30 percent of midmarket companies said breaches cost them less than $100,000, while 20 percent said it cost $1,000,000 to $2,499,999.
SMBs and midmarket organizations face fewer than 5000 security alerts a day.
Midmarket companies investigate 55.6 percent of security alerts.
Targeted attacks against employees such as phishing (79%), advanced persistent threats (77%), ransomware (77%), DDoS attacks (75%), and proliferation of BYOD (74%) are the top five security concerns for SMBs.

Maximizing Security Effectiveness

Companies are evaluating and investing in staffing and technologies to address the threats that keep them awake at night. If staffing resources were more available, midmarket companies would be more likely to invest in:

upgrading their endpoint security to more sophisticated advanced malware protection/EDR the most common response at 19 percent.
better web application security against web attacks at 18 percent.
deploying intrusion prevention, still seen as a vital technology to stop network attacks and exploit attempts at 17 percent.

Solutions using machine learning and automation are relied on slightly less heavily by midmarket businesses when compared to organizations with more than 1000 employees. SMB companies are looking for vendors to integrate machine learning and AI technologies into the detection layers of existing solutions vs. standing up stand-alone projects.

SMBs are also considering the solutions needed to secure today's work environment, including the continued influx of mobile devices on company networks and adoption of cloud services. Cloud services adoption has increased in recent years, from 55 percent of midmarket businesses hosting some of their networks on the cloud in 2014 to 70 percent in 2017, as companies seek to scale their resources and consider leveraging external security resources like Managed Security Service Providers.

Because SMBs and midmarket companies are not immune to the challenges created by the shortage of cybersecurity talent, they are finding ways to maximize their limited resources. More than half of these organizations rely on outsourced partners for advice and consulting services, incident response, and security monitoring.