Every day we hear of the cyber security risks with massive organisations being attacked, whether it’s the HSE or Toyota – accelerated all the more by the Russia and Ukraine crises. But the smaller attacks on SMEs do not make the news, and these are also on the increase. Ireland alone has seen a 25% increase in March 2022. At LoughTec we see this more and more.
Why attack an SME?
- SMEs can tend to have a thought of “It’ll never be our company”. Yet, 1 in 5 Irish SMEs will suffer a breach this year.
- Large businesses can have massive teams and dozens of IT Security tools in place, which can make it difficult for threat actors. SMEs who do not, are much easier targets.
- SMEs cannot afford to be shut down by an attack so often pay the ransom. The typical downtime after an attack is 19 days – can you survive that downtime?
- The typical ransom figure for Irish SMEs is €25,000. Can you afford this in the first place? Cyber insurance isn’t always the answer either – they will not pay out unless you have the correct plans, processes, tools and investments in place.
