Data Breaches Among Top Concerns for SMBs

According to Tirena Dingeldein, blog author for popular software-vendor directory Capterra, data security has emerged as a main concern for small to medium sized businesses. For small businesses, even a single breach can be crippling. However, there are steps you can take to stave off these threats, keeping your data and your business safe and secure.

According to research conducted by Capterra in 2018, 71 percent of SMBs now use data security technologies, and data security is in the top three priorities for technology spending in the next two years.

Some business owners believe that they do not possess enough data to justify purchasing security software, and some believe that their data simply isn’t important enough to be targeted by criminals. The fact remains that even large companies can lose substantial amounts of business and revenue because of a data breach. Some of these large companies barely survive. Just think of how much damage a data breach can do to a small business.

The fact of the matter is that nearly 60 percent of SMBs fail within six months of a data breach after losing tons of money each month along the path to ruin. In addition, tech criminals see small businesses as easy targets, and an investigations report by Verizon backs this claim by finding that small businesses make up 75 percent of data breaches.

IBM calculates the cost of a data breach by record. For each record compromised, it costs a business approximately $148. This cost represents what an SMB will have to spend in the recovery process. Kaspersky Labs has also conducted a cost analysis, and this software company estimates that a single data breach incident will cost $120,000.

The following three steps are crucial in mitigating the risk of a security breach:

  1. Purchase and implement data security software – This usually takes three forms: network security software to scan and monitor intrusions and vulnerabilities, data loss prevention software to help a business manage sensitive data and computer security software to provide file access control.
  2. Purchase data breach liability insurance – In the event of a data breach, insurance can be invaluable in covering all the associated costs. Insurance can help pay for a variety of losses, including lawsuits and brand cleanup, and it can be reasonably priced for SMBs.
  3. Create a response and recovery plan – If the unthinkable occurs, and hackers get through your data security software, it can help immensely to have a plan of action already prepared.

For more information on protecting your SMB from a data security breach, please see the original article on the Capterra blog.