Nearly half of UK SMBs think a cyberattack could end them

Almost half of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the UK believe a cyberattack would put their business at risk of closure according to new research from the cybersecurity firm Webroot.

Additionally 48 percent of organizations have also begun to shift their priorities away from activities that would help grow their business in order to address cybersecurity.

Webroot's report, titled “Size Does Matter”, sheds light on the challenging climate UK SMBs are currently facing in a time of rapid political, economic and social change. After Brexit, cybersecurity threats are the biggest source of uncertainty for UK SMBs.

To deal with growing cyber threats, SMBs are spending almost an entire working day (18% of their time) a week on cybersecurity related tasks.

Targeting SMBs

Of the businesses surveyed by Webroot, almost half (48%) said they had suffered a cyberattack or data breach in their lifetime with more than one in seven saying this happened more than once.

To make matters worse, of those businesses that had been targeted, 70 percent were used as an entry point into a larger enterprise system they supply to. Nearly half (48%) of the cases negatively impacted relationships with 22 percent of SMBs admitting they are no longer a supplier as a result.

Webroot's Senior Director of Product Strategy, Paul Barnes encouraged SMBs to use their nimble size to their advantage, saying:

“SMBs can no longer consider themselves too small to be targets. They need to use their nimble size to their advantage by quickly identifying risks and educating everyone in the business of how to mitigate those risks, because people will always be the first line of defence. Working with the right cybersecurity partner or managed service provider (MSP) to develop the right strategy for their size will allow smaller businesses to prioritise the activities that matter most and help them grow.”