76 Percent of SMBs Based in United States Have Experienced Cyberattacks in Past 12 Months

• Attackers waged a variety of attacks against small and medium-sized businesses.
• This included phishing (57 percent), compromised or stolen devices (33 percent) and credential theft (30 percent).

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States have become favorite attack targets for cybercriminals. This is evident from the latest study released by the Ponemon Institute.

The report called ‘2019 Global State of SMB Cybersecurity’ has cited that around 76 percent of SMBs located in the U.S. have experienced a major cybersecurity incident in the past 12 months.

What is the impact?

• The research, which was conducted on behalf of Keeper Security, gathered responses from over 2,300 participants working in IT and cybersecurity industries based in the US, UK and various other countries.
• Attackers waged a variety of attacks against small and medium-sized businesses. This included phishing (57 percent), compromised or stolen devices (33 percent) and credential theft (30 percent).
• In total, 63 percent of organizations across the globe reported the loss of sensitive corporate or customer information in the past 12 months. Of these, 69 percent of data loss was witnessed by organizations in the U.S.

A major problem

The study noted that SMBs globally are adopting emerging technologies like mobile devices, IoT and biometrics. However, they lack the right security posture to protect their sensitive information. In the era of the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) scheme, the study highlights that nearly 48 percent of respondents admitted to accessing business-critical applications from mobile devices.

Conclusion

Hiring cybersecurity vendors and purchasing antivirus solutions is not enough for businesses to protect themselves. The organizations, especially SMBs, should also make basic improvements to security hygiene and posture with effective weapons to fight cyberattacks.