Cybercrime is up 600%, and the global cost to SMB businesses stands at £5 trillion per year.
Data from the 2022 Cybersecurity Breach survey run by the National Cybersecurity Centre and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport reveals that, in the UK, the average cost of a cyberattack on medium and large businesses is £19,400. This figure could be conservative as the lack of framework for recording the financial impacts of cyberattacks may have resulted in underreporting. Moreover, 39% of UK businesses have identified a cyberattack in the past 12 months and 31% of businesses estimate they were attacked at least once a week.
The risks posed to MSPs by cybercriminals are countless and can be devastating. If an organisation is successfully breached by a criminal, it could bring the whole operation to a halt and cost significant sums of money. There is also the risk that the hacker could sit within the MSP’s network and gain access to its clients, resulting in the additional loss of reputation.
Why Is Cybercrime on the Rise?
The rise in online security threats, such as phishing and ransomware, can partly be put down to more flexible working patterns since the start of the pandemic. With employees continuing to work from home, at least part of the time, this has led to increased security weaknesses due to remote accessing of digital tools and cloud storage. It’s vital to take steps to make remote systems more secure, such as endpoint detection and response solutions that remediate threats across all devices, desktops, and servers.
Cyberattacks are also getting more sophisticated and severe. The Purplesec report says that ransomware was 57 times more destructive in 2021 than it was in 2015. Moreover, the latest UK Cybersecurity Breach survey shows that the most common threats were phishing attempts (83%), although one in five (21%) businesses that reported a cyberattack identified a more sophisticated threat, such as a denial of service, malware, or ransomware attack.
Don’t Become Another Statistic
The best way an organisation can protect itself against cybercriminals is with world-class security solutions. Building a personalised security stack protects business infrastructure and keeps critical data safe in the cloud. There is, of course, no guaranteed way to ensure that any business’ data is completely secure. But by putting robust security measures in place, MSPs can limit the damage that a cybercriminal can do, or the amount of data they’re able to access.
However, technology can only go so far. According to Mostyn Thomas, CEO of Astrix Cybersecurity, amongst the most effective forms of cybersecurity protection are staff training and taking out cybersecurity insurance. Instilling a security mindset amongst employees makes it more likely that the team will be more proactive in identifying and preventing breaches.
Cybersecurity is a costly venture, but not in comparison to the potential worst-case scenario. Partnership with Pax8 means getting access to best-in-class security vendors and a Cybersecurity Masterclass, designed to bolster an MSP’s own security.
