Customers rely more on internal IT teams, but an increasing number are interested in external MSP services
PRAGUE, January 11, 2024 – GFI Software, a provider of enterprise network security solutions, stated that according to its survey conducted among global partners and customers, only 31% of respondents said that SMBs are well prepared for a potential cyberattack. 47% rely solely on internal staff, while 6% do not address IT security at all. SMBs can become victims of attacks at least as likely as large companies, precisely because of their weak defenses.
Most SMBs today have no more than one cybersecurity specialist, and many have none at all. Yet most attacks on SMBs exploit a significant number of vulnerabilities in unpatched systems and applications. This can easily allow malware, phishing emails, ransomware, DDoS attacks, or man-in-the-middle attacks to reach them.
A typical small business may be an operator of one of today’s popular bistros or cafés with just a few employees. In the interest of higher productivity and customer convenience, they may introduce online ordering via mobile phone, which can then become the target of a cyberattack aimed at exploiting customers’ payment data. Ultimately, customers are robbed, trust is lost, and the business often shuts down – simply because they did not consider IT security important and had no one to take care of it.
Results of the survey among GFI Software partners and customers:
- In 47% of cases, IT security in SMBs is handled by an internal team; in 13% of cases, by an MSP partner; in 34%, by a combination of both; and 6% do not manage their cybersecurity at all.
- From the perspective of defense against a potential cyberattack, 65% believe that SMBs are somewhat prepared, 31% are very well prepared, and 4% are unprepared.
- The main motivations for improving cybersecurity are protecting critical data and devices (68% of respondents), preventing financial losses (29%), and meeting legal requirements (3%).
“Cybersecurity is no longer an option for SMBs, but a necessity,” said Jozef Kačala, Vice President of Global Sales Engineering at GFI Software. “However, given their financial resources, they have a one-person team at best, and no team at worst. Although most of our customers prefer internal staff, there is a clear growing interest in outsourcing IT security to professional MSP providers, with half already using at least some MSP service. At GFI, we closely monitor this trend and offer our partners MSP versions of our products, including GFI LanGuard MSP, Kerio Connect MSP, and Kerio Control MSP.”
Article author: ZEBR.ai editorial team
