Cyberattacks are rising fast. The World Economic Forum reported at Davos this year that cyberattacks worldwide jumped 125% in 2021. Many of these attacks were targeted at large corporations and grabbed headlines, like the ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods.
But headlines can be misleading. Fewer reports focus on cyberattacks and data breaches impacting companies with less than 100 employees. And yet, SMBs are three times more likely to be attacked than large organizations.
Once attacked, SMBs are far more likely to suffer data loss because they don’t have the resources required to defend themselves against the broad range of cybersecurity threats in the world today or to recover from an attack.
A global study by Arcserve released in June 2022 found that 35% of attacked companies faced ransom payments of more than $100,000, and 20% received demands of $1 million to $10 million. For SMBs, this is a staggering and entirely unaffordable demand. And yet most do business with no defense against demands like that because their resources are limited, and they must be laser-focused on making those investments that will bring impactful results.
But as more SMBs learn about the growing threat posed by cyberattacks, more are discovering the many benefits of taking on an external partner to protect themselves and their data. Here are three ways that channel partners and managed service providers (MSPs) help SMBs prioritize data protection and gain the robust and affordable security they need.
