"SMB Cybersecurity Concerns Persist Amid Geopolitical Tensions"

OpenText Security Solutions surveyed 1,332 security and Information Technology (IT) professionals in the US, the UK, and Australia, finding that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are concerned that geopolitical tensions will worsen ransomware threats. Eighty-eight percent of respondents admitted to being concerned or extremely concerned about an attack affecting their business, while more than half (57 percent) of SMBs surveyed expressed concern about their cybersecurity budget shrinking due to rising inflation rates. However, Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director at OpenText, believes that small businesses should be more concerned about Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) rather than geopolitical tensions. He explains that the war in Ukraine has resulted in many Russian cybercrime groups being doxed and their operations being disrupted. He added that this has been beneficial to SMBs in the short term because some of the most organized threat actor groups are inactive, at least for now. However, SMBs remain a primary focus and target of RaaS threat actors, making it more important than ever for SMBs to strengthen their security. Despite the need to be prepared for RaaS attacks, the survey found that most respondents (60 percent) are not confident or only somewhat confident in their ability to defend against a ransomware attack, thus providing additional motivation for threat actors to target SMBs. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of small businesses surveyed said security awareness training was done twice a year or less. A little less than a third (31 percent) of these SMBs said they only conduct security awareness training once a year, and one in ten only if an employee fails a phishing test. This article continues to discuss findings from OpenText Security Solutions' survey of security and IT professionals as well as key steps SMBs must take to defend themselves against ransomware. 

Security Boulevard reports "SMB Cybersecurity Concerns Persist Amid Geopolitical Tensions"