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October 3, 2017 Comments closed

Study: 66% of SMBs would shut down if hit by a Data Breach

in Hashing Out Cyber Security

A new study from Vipre shows two-thirds of SMBs would suffer catastrophic consequences from a breach.

VIPRE Security recently commissioned a survey amongst small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to determine their susceptibility and risk level in relation to data breaches. The study yielded some interesting results, perhaps the most striking of which was that 66% responded that a data breach would cause them to shut down for at least a day or more, if not put them out of business entirely.

This meshes with the results of a study by the National Cyber Security Alliance that stated that 60% of SMBs that experience a breach do go out of business.

To conduct its survey, Vipre polled IT managers from 250 SMBs. The study also found that:

• 23% of respondents experience a cyber attack on a daily basis
• 68% of IT Managers are tasked with generating security reports
• But, only 41% have access to an online security dashboard

The point of VIPRE’s study was to support a new Cloud security product, but it does shine a light on a very relevant topic: SMBs are definitely more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

SMBs are also a prime target. The reason for this is simple, most SMBs can’t afford to staff a full security team, much less implement a comprehensive security solution. According to Symantec’s 2016 Threat Report, a whopping 77% of SMBs reported they had been the target of a cyber attack in the past year.

We specialize in SSL and can help you configure your servers to maximize its protection – but that only secures certain attack vectors. If you’re running a small or medium-sized business, you need to invest in additional security measures beyond encrypted connections.

At Hashed Out, we enjoy a certain degree of autonomy from our parent company, The SSL Store™. Because of that, me – nor any of our other writers – are ever going to try to sell you anything. So, this is just some friendly security advice: invest in comprehensive security. There are a number of reputable vendors out there that can secure everything your SSL certificate doesn’t cover. It would be foolish not to. Almost akin to putting a padlock on your front door but leaving your windows open.

So, let this serve as a reminder to stay on top of your security implementations. Because even one mistake could spell disaster.

What we Hashed Out (for Skimmers)

Here’s what we covered in today’s discussion:

• According to a VIPRE survey, 66% of SMBs would shut down if hit by a data breach
• Symantec’s 2016 Threat Report says 77% of SMBs have experienced an attack in the past year
• You need security beyond just SSL, including firewalls, secure CDNs and endpoint security

• #Data Breaches
• #SMBs