Horror stories of mass data breaches at international corporations like Equifax, Sony and Home Depot made headlines in recent years.  However, small and medium-sized organizations remain even more vulnerable to data loss.

Consider the story of Lake Champlain Chocolates, a family-owned confectioner in Burlington, Vermont.  In late 2017, the company fell victim to a data breach.  The breach exposed the names, addresses, emails and credit card information of nearly 100 customers.  Meanwhile, the hackers gained access to the confectioner’s system.  It all happened because the company neglected to install a software update.

Lake Champlain Chocolates survived the breach, and continued turning out the sweets.  Unfortunately, a 2018 study found that 60% of small businesses close shop within six months of a cyberattack.

With limited time and resources to combat cyberattacks, small and medium-sized businesses become prime targets for cybercriminals.  A Vipre survey of IT managers at companies with 50-1,500 employees found that cyberattacks hit SMBs at a rate of more than once per day.  Meanwhile, a 2018 study conducted by CDW and IDG Research revealed that only 30% of IT leaders at SMBs believe they can successfully thwart a cyberattack on their organization.

Costs of Data Breaches

The average costs of data breaches related to phishing, online attacks and malware attacks are also higher for small businesses.  A 2017 study by Bank of America reported that 31% of small businesses spent more than $50,000 to resolve a customer data breach.  Another study by the Better Business Bureau discovered that 53% of small businesses would be unprofitable within one month if they lost access to critical data.

Despite these sobering statistics, a Symantec survey showed that only 23% of SMBs back up their data every day.  Meanwhile, 75% of small businesses do not carry any cyber insurance.  At the same time, only 38% of SMBs upgrade their security software regularly.

2018 Data Breach Investigations Report Most small companies store sensitive personal and financial information on their systems.  However, they generally don’t boast the same level of IT security and support as large businesses.  A 2018 report by Verizon found that 58% of cyberattacks target small businesses.  Meanwhile, a whopping 62% of small businesses do not have a comprehensive cyber security plan in place.

Data Backups

The task of backing up, storing, protecting and recovering your business data is too important to leave in the hands of in-house amateurs.  That’s why more and more small and medium-sized businesses outsource their IT management to dedicated experts.  At Capital Network Solutions, we possess over 30 years of experience safeguarding the data of small businesses in the Sacramento area.

Through our partnership with Barracuda Backup, we provide the best data backup service for small businesses. We not only monitor your local data backups every day.  We also oversee the offsite replication on physical servers and in the cloud.  If a breach occurs, we take care of the data restoration, ensuring that your business stays afloat through troubled waters.  Call us at (916) 366-6566 to set up an appointment to discuss your data backup protection needs.