The vast majority (73 percent) of UK-based small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) don’t believe they are equipped to survive a cyberattack. This is according to a new report from security operations firm Arctic Wolf, based on a poll of 505 SMB leaders.
On average, SMBs receive around 75 cybersecurity alerts a day, which two in five (39 percent) describe as overwhelming. As they attempt to tackle these notifications, security teams start to suffer from alert fatigue, leading to genuine threats being missed.
Alert fatigue aside, there is also insufficient time for SMBs to address all cyberthreats. More than half (55 percent) of the businesses polled said various cybersecurity problems are frequently deprioritized, leaving businesses even more vulnerable to attacks.
“Cyberattacks, such as ransomware, are growing more advanced by the day, and organizations that fall victim are experiencing not only short-term financial and operational impacts, but also long-term impacts from customers and partners losing their trust,” said Christina Richmond, Program Vice President, Security Services at IDC.
“Being able to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risk has become an essential function for all organizations, but finding the talent, tuning the tools, and developing the internal process is a significant challenge for even the largest, well-resourced organizations. These operational challenges are why organizations across the UK must leverage the outside security expertize offered by cloud-hosted security services.”
Cybersecurity experts suggest that the best way to stay safe is to educate employees on the dangers of phishing, Business Email Compromise and social engineering attacks. Most of the time, employees are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain.