What the Prevalence of Threats in SMB Networks Means for MSSPs

For far too long, many leaders of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have believed their organizations weren’t likely to be targeted by cyberattacks. Thinking their business profiles too low, their structures too simple or their profits too small, these leaders have historically underestimated their risk.

This risk is compounded as these organizations have also found themselves limited by budget constraints, and have struggled to attract and retain skilled and experienced employees in the face of today’s acute shortage of cybersecurity professionals.

The SMB Threat Landscape

Today’s attackers are increasingly sophisticated, professionalized and motivated by the desire for financial gain. They are well aware that many SMBs maintain less robust security postures than their enterprise-level counterparts, though storing sensitive personal and financial data that can be exploited just as readily as that taken from larger organizations.

Recent research indicates that SMBs today are in fact being affected by cybercrime more frequently than larger enterprises. The 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report notes that 58% of victims were categorized as small businesses. The Better Business Bureau reported that more than 20% of small organizations had been directly impacted by cyberattacks within the past year.

As SMBs become more aware of these significant and growing threats, they are increasingly turning to partners for support in reducing and mitigating the risks. This opens an opportunity for Fortinet partners to provide value, simplify security infrastructures and support business growth by helping SMBs focus on their strengths.

Growing Awareness Creates Opportunities for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs)

With large-scale data breaches and international cyber-espionage events continuing to make headlines, cybersecurity risk awareness is on the rise, both among members of the public and SMB leaders.

Driven by this expanded awareness of threat severity and increasing need to comply with data security and privacy regulations, such as GDPR, organizations are increasing their willingness to invest in security solutions.

However, SMB customers do not have the budgets or internal employee resources to select, monitor and maintain complex combinations of products and services. For this reason, it often makes a great deal of sense for them to outsource their IT security requirements to MSSPs.