By Darren Williams|Last Updated: January 22nd, 2024|2 min read|Categories: White Paper|

Cybersecurity Risk Management for SMB’s

Small and mid-sized businesses face unique threats in today’s threat landscape. These organizations don’t command the same resources as large enterprises, yet they must respond to many of the same kinds of cyberattacks.

These attacks increasingly use a sophisticated combination of social engineering, credential compromise, and technical exploits to infiltrate target networks. Organizations with less than 1000 employees often have limited options for protecting themselves in a reliable, cost-effective way.

In partnership with Sapio Research, we conducted a risk management survey of 400 security leaders throughout the United States and United Kingdom. The scope of this research was to identify how different leaders and types of organizations are responding to ongoing risk management trends.

Our findings showcase the value that third-party security services provide for smaller organizations, especially when it comes to implementing new solutions in the security tech stack. They also suggest that technologies like anti data exfiltration have an important role to play helping small to medium sized organizations achieve security performance on par with large enterprises.

Security leaders at small to mid-sized organizations are navigating an uncertain threat landscape. Finding trustworthy partners and implementing effective prevention-based security technologies can make a significant difference in their overall risk management strategy.

Mid-sized businesses report being exposed to the highest level of risk

61% of respondents in organizations with 100 to 999 employees have experienced a data breach in the last 12 months. 71% of respondents believe these organizations are the most vulnerable.

Malware is the top concern that security leaders report having

50% of respondents report that malware attacks are their top concern. Among security leaders who have experienced a successful cyberattack, 42% report that the attack was malware-based. 58% reported business downtime occurring as a result of the attack.

Security leaders are enthusiastic about the performance of IT teams

91% of security leaders believe they are aligned with their IT teams when it comes to addressing cybersecurity challenges. 93% report being satisfied they are up-to-date on the latest innovations in the cybersecurity space.

Awareness doesn’t always lead to understanding

There is a disconnect between awareness of cybersecurity technologies and deep understanding of how they work. 77% of respondents report being aware of anti data exfiltration (ADX) technology, but only 42% report having in- depth understanding of it.

24/7 technical support and high security standards are vital

Organizations that rely on third- party IT service and security providers report prioritizing 24/7 technical support (41%) and high security standards (38%) above all other considerations.