SMBs in the Crosshairs of Cybercrooks

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Research by the World Economic Forum shows cyberattacks increased 125% globally in 2021 and continued to escalate last year.

May 16, 2023

Cybersecurity

Research by the World Economic Forum shows cyberattacks increased 125% globally in 2021 and continued to escalate last year. These other recent cybercrime statistics further underscore this alarming trend line:

Ransomware attacks (i.e., when data is stolen and only released upon payment of ransom) grew more than 40% in 2022, with identification and remediation of these breaches taking about 50 days on average.
Phishing attacks (i.e., a social engineering technique that tricks recipients into revealing passwords or other credentials) rose nearly 50% during the first half of last year, with nearly 11,400 reported incidents.
The United States remains the most highly targeted country with about half (46%) of global cyberattacks targeting U.S. organizations.

These are troubling findings for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which make up more than 99% of U.S. companies according to federal studies.

SMBs have increasingly become the favorite target for cybercriminals for several reasons:

Most SMBs lack the budget to fund standard cybersecurity safeguards practiced by large enterprises
Most SMBs lack the staff to execute comprehensive cybersecurity protections deployed by big corporations
Most SMBs lack the expertise for cybersecurity training that can convert employees at every level into cyber defenders

You may be wondering: What relief is there for SMBs?

One answer is working with a managed services provider. An MSP can address your pain points by bringing security expertise cultivated from working across industries, in addition to augmenting your internal resources and helping you optimize IT spending in the process.

Call us for your cybersecurity risk assessment and defense planning.