SMBs concerned about tightening security budgets

OpenText has released results of the OpenText Security Solutions 2022 Global Small-Medium Business (SMB) Ransomware Survey. Findings show growing concern about ransomware attacks, the impact of geopolitical tensions and rising inflation rates. Eighty-eight percent of respondents noted they are concerned or extremely concerned about an attack impacting their business.

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“SMBs are a sweet spot for hackers to exploit because they often lack cybersecurity resources, both technology and security expertise,” said Prentiss Donohue, Executive Vice President, OpenText Security Solutions. "Today’s complex threat landscape presents a huge risk to SMBs that don’t have sufficient cyber resiliency preparation to stop the spread and recover quickly from an attack. With adversaries becoming increasingly sophisticated and relentless, a multi-layered protection strategy is no longer a nice to have, it is a necessity.”

 

UK Spotlight findings

UK SMBs fear tightening security budgets despite feeling more at risk of suffering ransomware attacks due to heightened geopolitical tensions:  

·       Over half (53%) of UK SMBs are worried about their cybersecurity budget shrinking amid rising inflation rates.

·       Security budgets are likely to be tightened at a time when 46% of IT teams feel more at risk of suffering a ransomware attack because of heightened geopolitical tensions.

·       84% are concerned about a ransomware attack impacting their business.

There’s a concerning lack of awareness amongst SMBs when it comes knowing if they’ve suffered a ransomware attack, and budgets to protect against these risks are low:

·       Over a third (37%) of UK SMBs have experienced a ransomware attack, yet 66% still don’t think or aren’t sure they are a ransomware target.

·       Despite many having experienced an attack before, security budgets are minimal to protect against ransomware and other threats:

o   60% spend less than £44K per year.

o   49% spend less than £18K per year.

o   7% spend less than £900 per year.

It’s clear that SMBs need to take preventative action to protect their business against the rising ransomware threat:

·       Third-party support: 52% of UK SMBs don’t outsource their security to a managed service provider, but 59% of those respondents would now consider doing so.

·       56% of SMBs want to increase the size of their security team – with 37% wanting to hire an additional 1-5 employees.

·       Over one in ten (15%) don’t use any cybersecurity solutions to protect their business currently.

·       Of those that do, the most popular are antivirus (78%) and email security (71%). Only 55% have backup solutions in place and only 43% have a cloud security solution in place.

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