Small Businesses Are At Big Risk For Cyberattacks

There’s no shortage of studies and statistics about cyber crime. And while the numbers don’t always align perfectly from one report to another, and from one cohort to another, the specific numbers almost don’t matter.

Just because cyberattacks declined for one report cycle duration doesn’t guarantee they won’t rise again. Cyber trends ebb and flow, and hackers will persistently seek easy prey – companies of any size with weak cyber defenses. Unless the number of attacks falls to zero, SMBs must put cybersecurity at the top of their priority list. They never know when they will be part of the percentage. 

Something else SMBs should consider: most data breaches–85 percent–result from human error or malicious behavior. Data from the Ponemon Institute suggests that seven in ten employees were victims of password theft – which is most often the result of carelessness on the worker’s part. In Verizon’s report, Mis-delivery and misconfiguration were also in top spots for human error.