The Small Business Owner Study conducted by diversified insurance and financial services firm
Nationwide revealed that most small businesses are not prepared to handle cyber-attacks.
Specifically, the study revealed that 78% of those surveyed did not have a response plan, although 54% of them fell victim to at least one type of attack in the pertinent period. Further, 68% expressed concern over their ability to deal with such attacks in case it happens to them.
Further, 60% of those who experienced a cyber-attack took more than one month to recover from the event.
"Cyber criminals are getting more sophisticated and realizing that small businesses are easy targets," said Mark Berven, president of Nationwide Property & Casualty. The study further lists the following as the most common forms of attack against small businesses: computer virus (37%); phishing (20 %); trojan programs (15%); hacking (11 %); and unauthorized access to customer information (7 %) and unauthorized access to company information (7 %).
Nationwide surveyed around 500 businesses with fewer than 300 employees for the study.
