With Covid-19 forcing most business into the digital realm, becoming cyber-resilient has never been more important. However, small businesses are having a hard time staying safe because they lack properly skilled workforce and struggle with the concept of remote working.
A new report by Infosecurity Europe found that more than four in ten of businesses (41.5 percent) cited lack of expertise as the issue having the greatest negative impact on their cybersecurity posture, followed by a third (34 percent) who named the surge in remote working as a challenge.
Not having the right skills to tackle cybersecurity is particularly concerning, the report further states, because half of the respondents (49 percent) believe it’s up to small companies, rather than the government (32 percent) or large tech companies (18 percent), to educate workers on cybersecurity best practices.
“The rapid pivot to remote working was – and continues to be – a huge challenge for SMBs,” says Maxine Holt, Senior Research Director at Omdia. “These organizations typically don’t have a dedicated cybersecurity function, and it’s part of someone’s job to oversee it. There was a sticking plaster placed over security during the shift to remote working, which isn’t sustainable. Companies must now peel the sticking plaster back, and put longer term security approaches in place.”
The effects of the lockdown are expected to be six times more damaging than the 2008 recession, Infosecurity cites O2 Business and the Center for Economic Business Research.
