Small businesses have much more to worry about now as research indicates an increase in cyberattacks against business and customer data within the past year. According to a recent study put out by Blackfog, a cybersecurity software company, 61% of small and medium sized businesses reported being the victim of a cyberattack within the past year.

Oftentimes these cyberattacks resulted in significant network downtime (affecting 58% of respondents). However, customer trust and retention were also negatively impacted according to research. One third of all respondents went so far as to say that the attacks directly resulted in a loss of customers.

Meanwhile, 39% of companies who responded to the survey reported a loss of customer data resulting from the attack.

On average, businesses saw close to five successful data breaches, malware or ransomware attacks affecting their network in the past year, with 87% of IT decisionmakers saying they experienced two or more successful cyberattacks within the past month.

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“Cybercriminals naturally gravitate towards targeting organizations with the lowest level of protection and this typically means small to medium business come under fire”, said Dr. Darren Williams, Founder and CEO of BlackFog, in the company press release.

“With 89% of all attacks involving some form of data exfiltration, it is paramount for organizations to prioritize the protection of their most valuable business critical asset, their data.”

Research Highlights Importance of Partnerships in Cybersecurity for Small Businesses

The research study also “revealed the growing importance of engaging with trusted partners to meet their security challenges,” according to the company announcement Tuesday (June 13).

More than one-quarter of all respondents (26%) rated providers and partners as the most highly trusted compared with colleagues in their company (21%), analysts (16%) and peers within other organizations (10%).

Among the key findings on partnerships with external providers, the research also revealed:

• Almost seven out of every 10 respondents (69%) said they were more likely to ask their partner for advice on new cybersecurity solutions compared to last year.
• 41% of respondents stated that knowledge of cyberthreats was the biggest challenge in effective protection; highlighting how service providers and partners have a vital role to play in providing access to information and expertise.
• Most respondents (87%) stated that they felt their IT providers were focused on understanding their cybersecurity challenges. However, only 39% of respondents felt they understood all their challenges.
• High-security standards are expected from partners, with more than one-third of respondents (38%) stating this was the main determining factor when choosing a managed security provider.

“There is a huge opportunity for solution providers and partners to build new relationships in this market, as SMBs struggle to navigate a rising tide of growing cybersecurity threats,” said Williams. “Now, more than ever, as a trusted partner, MSPs have an important responsibility to ensure their client’s data is protected from extortion.

“Existing defensive-based approaches are no longer enough for today’s polymorphic attacks, leveraging data exfiltration as the main weapon of choice,” he said.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister site Security Sales & Integration 06.13.23. It has since been updated for CE Pro audiences.

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