Almost all (90%) MSPs have suffered a successful cyberattack of some sort in the last 18 months. The same amount have seen an increase in the number of attacks they are preventing each month. On average, the number of attacks being prevented has risen from six to 11.

82% of MSPs have also seen attacks on their customers rise. However, those have not quite been at the same rate, with an average of 14 attacks prevented per month.

While progress is being made on important security processes such as automating backup, many basics are still not in place. For example, while most MSPs offer two-factor authentication to their customers, only 40% have implemented it in-house.

DDoS and ransomware are among the main attacks MSPs are detecting, but the top attack remains phishing.

The effects of cyberattacks are wide ranging. Over half of MSPs say that financial loss and business disruption resulted after a cyberattack. Many said they have lost business (46%), suffered reputational effects (45%) and even saw their customers suffer a loss of trust (28%). MSP budgets are only increasing at an average of 5%. They are focusing this extra investment on key areas, including data security, cloud security and infrastructure protection.

There’s good news. Most SMEs, seven in every 10, are planning to increase their security budget. For MSPs, this means a big opportunity is available.

Automating key functions is critical to making headway against cybercriminals. Automated backups are the most common form of automation used by MSPs to keep their customers’ businesses secure, used by 85% of all respondents.