SMBs in US, UK, Australia Lack Resources; Consider Outsourcing IT Security

Some 81% of decision makers in small and medium-sized businesses from the US, the UK, and Australia surveyed by Wakefield Research consider that outsourcing cybersecurity would enhance their ability to focus on core business processes, while only 37% say they are completely ready to manage IT security and protect against threats.

Overall, four in five respondents plan to increase their annual IT security budget for 2016, by an average of 22%. The vast majority of SMBs do not have security budgets remotely comparable to those of large (and previously breached) enterprises, and nearly 60% of respondents think their business is more prone to cyberattacks because of a lack of resources.

IT teams at most small to medium businesses are expected to handle all cybersecurity management and concerns. According to the survey, IT employees at 32% of the companies juggle security along with their other IT responsibilities.

IT decision makers can point to specific areas in which they feel under-prepared. According to the survey, 48% think their company is vulnerable to threats from insiders, such as employees. Following that, 45% believe they are unprepared for unsecured internal and external networks, such as public WiFi, and 40% for unsecured endpoints, such as computers and mobile devices.

Small businesses’ concerns about cyber threats have shot up and will only grow as attacks involving all range of companies increase. Some 60% of small business owners said they are concerned enough to take extra precautions including firewalls, offsite protected servers, multi-factor authentication, encrypted emails and multiple layers of password protection, as Business Insights has previously noted.

The survey was conducted this autumn among 300 IT decision-makers in the U.K., in the US, and 200 in Australia from SMBs.