How much damage can a cyber attack cause? A new Kaspersky Lab and B2B International survey of 3,900 IT professionals revealed damages from one successful targeted attack could cost a company as much as $2.54 million for enterprises or $84,000 for small businesses.

This year’s “IT Security Risks Survey” also showed 94 percent of organizations have encountered at least one cybersecurity incident in the past 12 months, and the number of organizations that reported having at least one targeted attack this year rose 3 percentage points from last year’s study.

“The survey results clearly indicate that many businesses now recognize that the threat of a targeted attack is very real and could be very harmful for their organization. However, we are seeing that the number of companies that are actually taking that knowledge and turning it into an action to protect their organization from such attacks is still alarmingly low,” Chris Doggett, Kaspersky Lab North America’s managing director, said in a prepared statement.

Other survey results included:

“It is critical for businesses of all sizes to make protection of their IT infrastructure their top priority by taking security knowledge they obtain and turning that insight into action by investing in technology, creating effective security policies and educating employees about cybersecurity,” Doggett told MSPmentor.

Demand for managed security services is rising

Recent data indicates the demand for managed security services is increasing, which could create new revenue opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs).

“The Global State of Information Security Survey 2015, a worldwide survey by CIO, CSO and PwC,” released earlier this month, revealed the number of reported cybersecurity incidents rose 48 percent in 2014 to 42.8 million, or approximately 117,339 attacks per day.

Frost & Sullivan researchers also recently estimated managed security services market revenues could increase from $1.81 billion last year to $3.25 billion by 2018.

MSPs, meanwhile, can take several steps to protect their customers’ sensitive information, along with their own.

Billy Austin, co-founder of Dallas-based data breach prevention platform provider iScan Online, last week provided the following tips at ASCII Atlantic City 2014 that MSPs can use to protect their data:

“I believe in the inevitable,” Austin told attendees. “These attacks are going to happen. You don’t have to be a target anymore.”

Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].