A survey of 700 IT and enterprise decision-makers discovered the majority of small-to-medium companies (SMBs) plan to extend investments in cybersecurity over the subsequent 12 months, though two-thirds of respondents admitted they lacked the in-house experience wanted to defend themselves.

Carried out by ConnectWise, a supplier of a administration platform for suppliers of IT companies, the survey additionally discovered practically three-quarters (73%) of report respondents conceding their group has reached a cybersecurity tipping level that calls for motion, with 43% now figuring out cybersecurity as being one in every of their prime three priorities.

Properly over two-thirds of respondents mentioned they’re involved a severe cybersecurity assault may put them out of enterprise. Lower than a 3rd (30%) have some type of cyberinsurance coverage at the moment in place. High areas of concern are distant units or workers being breached (75%), buyer knowledge being breached (74%) and IT system downtime (73%), the survey discovered.

Solely 40% thought-about their group to be very properly protected towards buyer knowledge being breached, with 41% saying the identical about IT system downtime. Solely 22% mentioned they’re fully assured their group’s cloud companies are safe.

Greater than three-quarters of respondents (76%) mentioned their group has been impacted by at the least one cybersecurity assault in 2021, with 31% citing board-level stress as influencing the extent of cybersecurity investments being made. These investments are being made to scale back threat (46%) and assist to extend buyer belief ranges (42%), the survey discovered.

The commonest safety instruments and practices in place are firewalls or antivirus software program (53%), compliance safety insurance policies (52%) and safety consciousness coaching and training (46%). Nevertheless, solely about half have carried out all three instruments and finest practices, the survey discovered.

Raffael Marty, basic supervisor for cybersecurity at ConnectWise, mentioned that stress mixed with a persistent scarcity of cybersecurity experience will push SMBs to rely extra on IT service suppliers to handle cybersecurity. An MSP, in any case, continues to be probably the most cost-effective method to make sure cybersecurity for SMB organizations that don’t have the identical stage of economic assets as a big enterprise, he famous.

A full 89% of respondents mentioned they’re already using a managed service supplier (MSP) for IT companies. A complete of 43% of respondents both depend on all or the vast majority of outsourced IT companies, with greater than half (51%) predicting this would be the case in 5 years as properly.

Nevertheless, 42% additionally famous they plan to alter to a unique one within the close to future. A full 94% mentioned they’d think about using or transferring to a brand new MSP in the event that they supplied the “proper” cybersecurity resolution. Properly over a 3rd (39%) mentioned they’d be prepared to pay a brand new MSP further annually in the event that they have been capable of present the precise cybersecurity resolution.

Key components for evaluating MSPs embrace confidence within the MSP capacity to answer safety incidents (54%), functionality/certifications of MSP assets/technicians (47%), belief within the MSP capacity to ship towards the providing (46%), confidence that the MSP may assist to attenuate injury/loss (44%) and model title recognition of MSP choices (37%).

A full 84% mentioned they’d think about taking authorized motion towards their MSP within the occasion of a cybersecurity assault.

The problem, after all, is that as cyberattacks proceed to extend in quantity and class, the percentages that there received’t be at the least one important breach in any given 12 months are zero.