ESET, a global leader in cybersecurity, released its 2022 SMB Digital Security Sentiment Report, which surveyed over 1,200 cybersecurity decision makers from small- to medium-sized businesses in Europe and North America. According to the new data, 74% of SMBs in North America and Europe believe that they are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than enterprises. And while these decision makers are concerned about the possible implications of an attack – most notably loss of data, financial impacts and loss of customer confidence and trust – 70% of businesses surveyed admitted that their investment in cybersecurity has not kept pace with recent changes to their operational models (i.e., hybrid working).
Closer to home, the top three challenges identified by SMBs in North American were:
- An inability to keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats (54%)
- Keeping up with the latest cybersecurity approaches and technologies (50%)
- Budget limitations/lack of investment in cybersecurity (49%)
Given these challenges, it’s no surprise that over half (51%) of the respondents in North America describe themselves as being not at all confident/slightly confident in their cybersecurity resilience over the upcoming 12 months. The top factors impacting the risk of a cyberattack in the next 12 months, in their perspective, were a lack of employee cybersecurity awareness, continued hybrid or home working, and migrating services to the cloud.
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“Earlier this month, it was reported that financial institutions witnessed over $1 billion in potential ransomware-related payments in 2021 — more than double the amount from 2020 and the most ever reported – and yet our research shows that SMBs are not investing enough in cybersecurity solutions, services or employee awareness,” said Ryan Grant, vice president of sales for ESET North America. “Many are not following basic cybersecurity best practices, such as using multifactor authentication, updating software regularly and conducting regular cybersecurity audits. This is why ESET continues to invest in, and make available, foundational cybersecurity awareness resources, the latest threat data and intelligence and a comprehensive suite of security solutions to protect companies.”
While SMBs in the United States and Canada face similar concerns and investment challenges, the cybersecurity landscape has its differences. For instance, 74% of U.S. respondents vs. 56% of Canadian respondents say they have experienced or acted on strong indications of a data security incident or breach in the last 12 months. And 43% of U.S. respondents noted they had more than one incident in the same time period vs. 28% of Canadian respondents.