Dive Brief:
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Nearly one in five small-to-medium-size businesses could be forced to permanently close their doors after a successful cyberattack, according to survey results published Tuesday by cybersecurity firm VikingCloud.
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Respondents ranked cybersecurity as a top business concern, second only to inflation and rising costs.
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“Our latest research shows that cybersecurity is business critical for SMBs — and a key driver in keeping their doors open or shut for good,” Kevin Pierce, chief product officer at Chicago, Illinois-based VikingCloud, said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
Cyberattacks cost SMBs more than $250,000 on average and can cost up to $7 million, according to a report released by Microsoft last fall.
“The unexpected costs of a cyberattack can be devastating for an SMB and make it difficult to financially recover from,” Scott Woodgate, general manager of threat protection at Microsoft Security, said in accompanying blog post. “These costs can include expenses incurred for investigation and recovery efforts to resolve the incident, and associated fines related to a data breach.”
One third of SMBs experienced a cyberattack during the past year, according to the VikingCloud study. Wi-Fi or network disruptions, phishing texts and emails, and fake social media accounts or website domains were the most common cybersecurity disruptions faced by respondents during the past 12 months. SMBs are also a growing target for malware, denial of service attacks, deepfake scams and ransomware, the research found.
The best defenses against attacks include leveraging artificial intelligence to detect vulnerabilities, responding to threats in real-time and automating security processes, VikingCloud said. Despite a growing awareness of the problem, many SMBs are still falling short of preparedness, due in part to a lack of resources, it said.
VikingCloud surveyed more than 200 North American SMB owners in December.
