Surveys finds SMBs at risk from cyberattacks
Monday, April 13, 2009
Small and mid-sized businesses are at risk for network security breaches, with a high number of SMBs reporting they do not protect their PCs against viruses, spam and other malware, according to a new survey.
Network security company Symantec released its 2009 Storage and Security in SMBs survey last week, showing that although many SMBs are aware of the risks, they have not taken basic steps to protect against data theft and other security concerns.
"Many small and midsized businesses are at a crossroads - aware of the need to strengthen their IT security infrastructure but unsure how to do so with limited resources," said Kevin Murray, senior director of product marketing at Symantec.
The survey showed 59 percent of SMBs have not implemented endpoint protection, 42 percent of SMBs do not have an anti spam protection and one-third of SMBs do not have anti virus protection.
Symantec said that a leading cause of loss reported by SMBs was "system breakdown or hardware failure," which could be prevented by installing desktop and server backup solutions.
Almost half of survey respondents do not back up data stored on desktop PCs, the company said.
SMBs could benefit from email filtering, email archiving and web filtering services to protect against spam and other cyberattacks.
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