Software developer Devolutions has announced results from its first cybersecurity survey, which polled IT decision-makers from small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Devolutions compiled the results from this survey into a report titled, The State of Cybersecurity in SMBs in 2020.
Among the most notable findings: 78% of SMBs indicated that having a privileged access management (PAM) solution in place is important to a cybersecurity programme – yet 76% of respondents said that they do not have one that is fully deployed. While it’s a positive trend that the majority of SMBs recognise the importance of having a PAM solution, the fact that most of the respondents don’t have a PAM solution in place reflects that there is inertia when it comes to deployment.
The numbers are staggering – and SMBs are not immune
Global cybercrime revenues have reached US$1.5 trillion per year. And according to IBM, the average price tag of a data breach is now US$3.9 million per incident. Despite these staggering figures, there remains a common (and inaccurate) belief among many SMBs that the greatest security vulnerabilities exist in large companies. However, there is mounting evidence that SMBs are more vulnerable than enterprises to cyberthreats – and the complacency regarding this reality can have disastrous consequences.
Devolutions CEO, David Hervieux, said: “SMBs must not assume that their relative smaller size will protect them from cyberattacks. On the contrary, hackers, rogue employees and others are increasingly targeting SMBs because they typically have weaker – and, in some cases, virtually non-existent – defence systems. SMBs cannot afford to take a reactive wait-and-see approach to cybersecurity because they may not survive a cyberattack. And even if they do, it could take several years to recover costs, reclaim customers and repair reputation damage.”