Woburn, MA – September 27, 2022 — A recent Kaspersky survey has found cybersecurity incidents are almost just as challenging as dramatic decreases in sales for small to medium businesses (SMB). In the U.S., 14% of respondents from SMBs said online attacks the most challenging aspect of their business, with dramatic decreases in sales closely following at 13.5%.
To gain insights into which crises pose the biggest risks to small and medium businesses, Kaspersky interviewed decision-makers from companies with 1 to 999 employees from 13 countries all over the world[1].
Data from the U.S. indicates cybersecurity incidents are the number one most difficult type of crisis, with decreased sales to follow. Legal issues, financial economic factors and technology failures are also a pain point for SMBs, rounding out their top five stressors.
IT security concerns are not unfounded, especially given that the probability of facing a cybersecurity-related problem rises as the company grows. While only 8% of organizations with 1 to 8 employees said they faced an IT security incident, this share increases to 30% among companies with more than 501 workers.
“Today, cybersecurity incidents can happen to businesses of all sizes and significantly affect their operations, profitability and reputation,” said Konstantin Sapronov, head of the global emergency response team at Kaspersky. ”However, as our Incident Response analytics report shows, in most cases adversaries use obvious gaps in an organization’s cybersecurity to gain access to its infrastructure to steal money or data. This fact suggests that basic protective measures, accessible even to small companies, such as a robust password policy, regular updates and employees’ security awareness, if not overlooked, may significantly contribute to the company’s cyber resistance”.
To keep the business protected even in times of crises, Kaspersky recommends the following:
The full report and more insights on small and medium businesses’ attitudes to crisis and tactics against it are available via this link.
About Kaspersky
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at usa.kaspersky.com.
Media Contact:
Cassandra Faro
Cassandra.Faro@Kaspersky.com
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[1] 1,307 interviews were conducted globally with representation across 13 countries: UK, USA, Germany, France, UAE, KSA, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.