"Small Businesses Suffer Record Number of Cyberattacks"

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), nearly three-quarters (73%) of US small business owners reported a cyberattack last year, with employee and customer data most likely to be targeted in data breaches.  The ITRC compiled its data from interviews with 551 small business owners and employees.  The ITRC found that, despite experiencing a record number of attacks, most (85%) of the respondents said they were ready to respond to a cyber incident, up from 70% last year.  Yet relatively few are following cybersecurity best practices to help prevent a breach in the first place.  Adoption rates for multi-factor authentication (MFA), mandatory strong passwords, and role-based access for employees ranged from 20-34%.  On the plus side, the ITRC noted that half (50%) of respondents claimed to have taken steps to prevent future breaches.  Two-thirds (65%) said they’d provided new training for staff, and 53% implemented new security tools.  Although there was an increase of 4% in incidents costing breached organizations less than $250,000, the overall number of small businesses suffering a financial impact from a cyberattack dropped three percentage points from last year to 42%.  

Infosecurity reports: "Small Businesses Suffer Record Number of Cyberattacks"