Study: 66 Percent of Small Businesses Worldwide Have Faced Cyberattacks in The Past Year

Study: 66 Percent of Small Businesses Worldwide Have Faced Cyberattacks in The Past Year

For the third year in a row, SMBs are reporting big increases in the frequency of cybersecurity attacks.

  • By Haley Samsel
  • Oct 11, 2019

Hackers are increasingly targeting small businesses in the U.S. and around the globe, according to a new study that surveyed over 2,300 participants in the IT and cybersecurity industries. 

For the third year in a row, small and medium-sized businesses are reporting a “significant increase” in cybersecurity attacks, according to the research published by the Ponemon Institute and Keeper Security. Sixty-six percent of SMBs globally have reported a cyber incident in the past 12 months. 

In the U.S., 69 percent of organizations surveyed reported the loss of sensitive corporate or customer information in the past year. That’s a 19 percent increase from four years ago, according to ZDNet. 

But while companies are becoming increasingly aware of cyber threats, particularly in the face of high-impact ransomware attacks on businesses and governments, many of the people surveyed said they were not confident in their organization’s ability to respond to the incidents. 

Forty-five percent of respondents said that the IT posture of their workplace is “ineffective,” and another 39 percent claimed there was no form of “incident response” in place to deal with breaches. 

The main threats continue to be phishing attacks, compromised devices used by employees, and credential theft, ZDNet reported. None of the findings are shocking to cybersecurity professionals who have been warning of the potential drawbacks of IoT devices, especially as more workplaces ask their employees to bring their own laptops to work. 

Nearly 50 percent of respondents said they use business-critical applications from devices outside of the workplace. Despite the participants acknowledging that this practice potentially puts their business security at risk, the use of outside devices to complete work does not look like it will fade any time soon. 

About the Author

Haley Samsel is an Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

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