One in five Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) have been impacted by a cyberattack, according to a survey by Norton by Symantec.
Over 1000 business owners were surveyed for the Norton SMB Cyber Security Survey which found 84% of attacks against these businesses occurred within the last two years; half of them were attacked within the last 12 months.
Phishing scams (52%) and ransomware (28%) remained the most prevalent forms of online attacks against SMBs. Larger SMBs were more likely to be targeted by ransomware and 34% of those that are hit paid the ransom, which on average amounted to $4677. Only 8% of those who paid did not get their files back.
The average loss for each online attack was calculated to be $6600.
The main impact of cyberattacks on SMBs wre:
- downtime (40%)
- expense for re-doing lost work (26 percent)
- inconvenience (24%)
- privacy breach (22%)
- financial loss (16%)
- data loss (15%) – 63% of respondents reported that they were unable to recover the data after an attack.
A lot of these businesses don’t have in-house IT support to deal with cyberattacks and to enforce strict backup processes that could remediate attacks like ransomware.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/11/small-businesses-are-more-susceptible-to-online-attacks/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/11/iStock_43885882_MEDIUM-410×231.jpg” title=”Small Businesses Are More Susceptible To Online Attacks” excerpt=”While big organisations may be used to being targeted by various forms of online attacks, an increasing number of small businesses are falling victim to cybercriminals, according to a security expert from Cisco. He also shared some advice on how small businesses can better protect themselves online.”]
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