Cybersecurity Facts Every Small Business Owner Should Know in 2024
& How a Managed IT Services Provider Can Help
Small businesses are incredibly important—not only for the economy but also for innovation. As per the U.S Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, small businesses are the backbone of job creation, contributing to 1.5 million jobs annually, which accounts for 64% of all new jobs in the United States. These small businesses, including one in three family-owned, 17.7% owned by minorities, and 41% owned by women, play a crucial role in maintaining a balanced and diverse economy.
Although small businesses make up most firms, most are less “digitized” and use less technology than their larger counterparts. That’s because digital solutions are typically designed for large companies and are often too expensive and complex for small businesses to adopt.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals have realized that this lack of digitization makes small businesses a prime target for cyberattacks. Let’s delve into some of the significant cybersecurity statistics that every small business owner should know in 2024. With this knowledge, small businesses can fortify their defenses against cyberattacks, data breaches, and more. A strategic alliance with a managed IT service provider like FullScope IT can provide the necessary expertise and resources to ensure comprehensive cybersecurity.
Small Businesses Often Don’t Have the Budget for Cybersecurity
We already mentioned that most small businesses can’t afford to digitize at the scale of enterprises. But here are some other surprising statistics that reveal just how big the cybersecurity gap is between small businesses and large organizations:
47% of businesses with fewer than 50 employees have no cybersecurity budget.
According to the SWLA Economic Development Alliance, almost half of small businesses with fewer than 50 employees have no budget for cybersecurity. Surprisingly, this figure doesn’t grow as businesses scale—35% of small businesses with 50-249 employees and 18% of companies with over 250 employees simply don’t budget for cybersecurity.
SMBs spend 5-20% of their total IT budget on security.
Although most small businesses budget for IT, many don’t include cybersecurity in these figures. Nearly half of small businesses spend less than $1500 monthly on cybersecurity, roughly 5-20% of their IT budget.
36% of small businesses aren’t concerned about cyberattacks.
That’s because 36% of small businesses are “not at all concerned” about cyberattacks, and 59% of small business owners with no cybersecurity measures believe their business is too small to be attacked.
29% of businesses that suffered a breach responded by hiring a cybersecurity firm or dedicated IT staff.
Among the small businesses that can survive a cyberattack, many realize the importance of cybersecurity too little too late. Only 29% of businesses that suffered a data breach responded by hiring a cybersecurity firm or dedicated IT staff to help.
But the landscape isn’t totally bleak. Some small businesses are proactively taking it upon themselves to protect their companies from cyberattacks. The top four cybersecurity tools SMBs adopt include antivirus software, firewalls, VPNs, and password management tools.
Fortunately, there are more affordable options for small businesses than winging it in the hopes that they won’t be attacked. A managed IT services provider like FullScope IT can help your small business protect itself from cyberattacks at a fraction of the cost of managing your own cybersecurity solutions.
Learn more about how FullScope IT’s affordable cybersecurity services can help protect your business from cyberattacks.
Most Small Businesses Are Vulnerable to Cyberattacks
Although most small businesses are severely underprepared to prevent or respond to a cyberattack, cybercriminals often target them. Here, we explore some of the most shocking statistics that show just how vulnerable small businesses are to cyberattacks in 2024:
61% of small businesses were the target of a cyberattack in 2021.
Small businesses are surprisingly popular targets for cyberattacks. In 2021 alone, according to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report, 61% of small businesses were the target of a cyberattack. That means most small businesses are severely underprepared to prevent or even respond to cybersecurity incidents, which are nearly inevitable.
Malware is the most common type of cyberattack aimed at small businesses.
According to Intuit Quickbooks, malware, a type of malicious software that can wreak havoc on a company’s systems, is the most common cyberattack against small businesses.
Ransomware, a specific type of malware that exfiltrates or holds data hostage in exchange for a ransom fee, is also a noteworthy threat. In fact, 82% of ransomware attacks in 2021 were against companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, and 37% of companies hit by ransomware had fewer than 100 employees.
Social engineering is another important threat small businesses should consider, especially since small business employees experience 350% more social engineering attacks than those at larger enterprises. Small businesses also receive the highest rate of targeted malicious emails, at 1 in 323. That number might seem low, but because the average officer worker receives 121 emails daily, that’s about one malicious email every two days.
87% of small businesses have customer data that could be compromised in an attack.
Although most small businesses consider themselves “too small” to be the target of a cyberattack, most collect sensitive data that could be compromised. In fact, 87% of small businesses have customer data that could be compromised in an attack—and 27% of small businesses with no cybersecurity protections collect customers’ credit card information.
If any of these businesses were breached, the consequences could be devastating. As data privacy laws become more common and as compliance regulations continue to grow, a single data breach of customer information could put a company of any size out of business.
In 2020, over 700,000 cyberattacks against small businesses totaled $2.8 billion.
The repercussions of a cyberattack stretch far beyond financial consequences, which are often huge. As of 2023, the average data breach cost in the United States was $9.48 million. In 2020 alone, there were over 700,000 cyberattacks against small businesses totaling $2.8 billion in damages. Most small businesses simply can’t afford to recover from these types of losses.
As if the financial consequences weren’t enough, cyberattacks also create operational risks for businesses. In fact, 50% of SMBs report that it took 24 hours or longer to recover from an attack—a figure representing additional costs due to downtime plus the reputational risks that come with going offline for days at a time. That number doesn’t include the time it takes to recover lost data, and 40% of small businesses report losing crucial data as the result of an attack.
Only 17% of small businesses have cyber insurance.
Although cyber insurance can help protect your business from some of these consequences, only 17% of small businesses have it. Protecting your small business against the financial, operational, and regulatory consequences of a cyberattack is no longer optional in today’s threat landscape. Partnering with a managed IT services provider like FullScope IT can help your business get the best cyber insurance rates possible.
Learn more about how FullScope IT can help your business get cyber insurance today.
Small Business Owners Aren’t Thinking About Cybersecurity
To put it simply, most small businesses aren’t thinking about cybersecurity. And why should they? Cybersecurity has only become a real problem for businesses in the past five to ten years, and understanding its nuances requires a degree of expertise most business owners just don’t have.
That’s probably why 51% of small businesses have no cybersecurity measures in place whatsoever. Cybersecurity solutions might promise protection, but they don’t tell you that it often requires expert team members to manage them. Even if they work independently, how do you know they’re actually working?
This is precisely where a managed IT services provider like FullScope IT can help. Not only will we identify and implement the best cybersecurity solutions for your business, but we will manage them for you. That way, you get peace of mind knowing your business is safe from cyberattacks without the headache of managing them yourself.
How FullScope IT Can Help
A locally managed IT service provider like FullScope IT will more likely understand your business needs and provide more personalized, timely support.
We have the time to meet your needs. We work one-on-one with each of our clients to discover and truly understand their managed IT services needs. At FullScope IT, we won’t sell you a service unless you absolutely need it. That’s because we conduct an initial audit to identify the kinks in your IT infrastructure so our experts can straighten them out. In many cases, we may even find issues you didn’t even know existed.
We understand your problems. Our 20+ years of experience helps us see things clearly. As business owners ourselves, we bring a level of knowledge and perspective to the table that other managed IT service providers simply don’t offer.
We have IT experts on hand. We’re available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. No matter what happens, you can count on us to help fix whatever IT problems you have.
Contact us today to learn how we can help your small business protect itself from cyberattacks without breaking the bank.
