A recent small business survey showed only 5% of small business owners viewed cybersecurity as the biggest risk to their business. This is the first survey since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the cybersecurity risks and warnings that came from the conflict. The warnings that came from numerous government agencies seem to have no impact on the small business community. The same 5% level of concern was found in the previous survey from the first quarter of 2022, before the conflict began.
Less than half of the small business owners say they use an antivirus, complex passwords, or external backups which affirms the statistic that cybersecurity is not a priority. The number falls even lower when we get into software updates and multi-factor authentication.
The NSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an advisory on Weak Security Controls Exploited for Initial Access. The advisory, in part, highlights many of the security controls small business owners admit to not using. Multi-factor authentication, software updates, and strong passwords are among the weak controls highlighted by the NSA advisory.
Customers disagree with small business owners regarding cybersecurity. About 75% of customers think businesses they use, will suffer a cybersecurity incident over the next 12 months, and 55% say they would be less likely to continue doing business with a company after a security breach.
Even if a company can recover data from a cybersecurity incident like ransomware, there is the added cost of paying the ransom, company downtime and loss of productivity, and the loss of public trust in the business. The most recent data available shows about 31% of US businesses that suffered a cyber-attack ultimately went out of business as a result of the incident.
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