European Cybersecurity Month – 5 stats you need to know

We’ve all seen the devastating impact a cyber-attack can have on large corporations , but how are these figures relevant for SMBs?

Working with thousands of IT resellers and some of the world’s leading cloud vendors, we’ve seen the real effect cyber-attacks can have on SMBs.

So, here are five statistics you need to know about cybersecurity:

91% of cyber-attacks are phishing email
Source: PhishMe Research

An email account is a necessity for most people. For everything from work, shopping, social media and keeping in touch, the benefits email provides has made organisations more efficient and productive than ever before. But due to its ease of use, and with the ability to send in bulk, makes it the primary method used for cyber-attacks.

With the threat of phishing emails, it’s important to be aware of how to spot them. Teach your employees how to spot these threats with our article: Top 5 signs of a spam email.

38% of all malicious file extensions are Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
Source: Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report

As people are getting smarter about cybersecurity, so are hackers. Users trust their everyday PC tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint because of their familiarity. Making them the perfect files for hackers to use.

It’s so important to take caution when a document arrives from an unknown source, even if the file is something as familiar as a Microsoft Word document.

43% of cyber-attacks are aimed at small businesses
Source: Cyber Security Statistics: Numbers Small Businesses Need to Know – Small Business Trends

Many SMBs feel they’re not at risk of a cyber-attack. Whether they believe they are too small to be a worthwhile target, or they are just unaware of the more sophisticated methods hackers are using, hackers target SMBs as much as any other groups.

Businesses of all sizes need to be aware of the risks and treat cybersecurity as a business-critical function to keep their company safe, especially against more sophisticated methods.

60% of SMBs who experience data loss shut down within six months
Source: National Cyber Security Alliance

From accountants to sales and human resources, a company’s most sensitive and important data is stored in a physical or cloud server. Making these sources of data a primary target for cyber-attacks.

Losing key data can result in an unknown period of time passing before data restoration takes place and you can get back to business as usual. As well as destroying your customers confidence in your business, which can lead to irreversible loss of income.

Given the huge risk to your business if an attack happens, data backup solutions like Acronis can help protect company data, safely backing up all your important assets in a secure UK data centre, so it can be restored in a matter of minutes.

Ransomware attacks grow more than 350% every year
Source: Varonis, 2018

With everything we’ve already covered, it’s not really that surprising that there’s a such a high year-on-year increase in ransomware attacks.

As hackers use more sophisticated and clever methods, it is vital for your business to have the security in place to protect your company both now and for the future from more advanced attacks. Vade Secure‘s email security solution uses AI-based machine learning to predict patterns of new and emerging threats.