Survey Shows Poor Security Awareness Among SMBs

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and  Symantec recently released the results of a survey they did as part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month to assess the awareness and preparedness of small businesses (51 or fewer employees) in countering cybersecurity threats.

Some notable findings:

• Only 28% have formal Internet security policies in place
• Only 25% provide even minimal Internet use/Internet security training to employees
• Those companies that do train spend less than 5 training hours per year on average
• 86% do not have an employee focused on Internet security
• More than 90% believe they are protected from malware and viruses

However:

• Barely half of the businesses surveyed check their antivirus software weekly to insure they’re up to date
• 11% never check security tools to make sure they’re current

For many, it seems, online security is simply not a top priority, falling far behind other issues such as meeting payroll and managing cash. But this is dangerous thinking, since more and more companies’ operations have become highly dependent on their IT infrastructure and the Internet for communications and business transactions.

How about your business? Is it secure? Call us today and find out how we can help.

Related articles:

• Fake security software ‘installed on millions of PCs’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Celebrating National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2009 (googleblog.blogspot.com)
• Symantec lists “Dirtiest Web Sites” (canada.com)