Protecting SMBs from Cyber Attacks: Awareness is the First Defense

Protecting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) from cyber attacks starts with educating employees on security issues and vulnerabilities. A recent study conducted by SilverSky Labs revealed that 78 percent of employees say their organization has fallen victim to 1 to 5 known attacks in the last 12 months. Respondents noted that the majority of these attacks against organizations have been targeted phishing attacks.

According to the survey, the biggest perceived point of failure in catching targeted attacks lies with a company’s end users (38 percent). Respondents identified limited in-house resources (27 percent) and the inability to detect events disguised behind normal processes, files and traffic (33 percent) as barriers to protecting against attacks.

But if upper management isn’t aware of security threats, how can the rest of an organization prepare accordingly? The study also found that 76 percent of employees claim their board of directors, CEO or both were only briefed once in the same time period regarding attacks to their organization

SilverSky conducted the survey of nearly 200 U.S.-based employees on their perceptions around targeted attack detection.

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