An overarching theme of the report reveals that SMBs around the world (and particularly in North America) believe they are too small and pose too little value to hackers to be worth their time, but recent trends in hacker and cybercrime activity reveal that’s just not the case.

In reality, SMBs’ limited resources, inadequate security, and lack of technical expertise make them more vulnerable to cyber attack, and hackers are taking notice.

Jeff Green, Senior VP of McAfee Avert Labs confirmed, “High profile attacks [on larger enterprises] are becoming less frequent because they are often detected quickly. Attackers are favoring stealth attacks that quietly infiltrate systems [of small and medium businesses].”

To change this trend, small and medium-sized organizations will need to make significant shifts in their fundamental values and budgetary allocations.

Today:

• 52% of SMBs believe they are not well known enough to be a target for cybercrime
• 46% believe hackers could not make any money by accessing their information
• 45% of SMBs think they hold little value to hackers
• 44% believe cyber crime is an issue for larger organizations
• 35% of SMBs are not concerned about being a target of cybercrime
• 34% don’t think their information has value outside the organization

As a result, an alarming number (74%) of  SMBs allocate three hours or less each week to IT security, and half of all SMBs surveyed feel adequately protected by default settings on the IT equipment. The effects of these lax standards are dire resulting in stolen data, downtime, decreased productivity, non-compliance, lost sales, and a tarnished reputation.

Businesses in this space typically experience a week of downtime trying to recover from a cyber attack, and real, out of pocket costs hover around $41,000 per incident.

So what’s a small business to do?

“Get ahead of the hackers. Take every step you can to prevent security breaches by partnering with organizations that specialize in security for small business,” advises FireHost Founder and CEO, Chris Drake. “We provide resources and expertise required to do business securely online, and FireHost helps SMBs achieve higher security levels for less money than they might spend taking on the challenge alone.”