Business Opportunities Weblog

October 29, 2009 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Reuters reports that according to the 2009 National Small Business Cybersecurity Study, small business owners’ cybersecurity policies and actions are not adequate enough to ensure the safety of their employees, intellectual property and customer data.

The study, co-sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec, as part of this year’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month, surveyed nearly 1,500 small business owners across the United States about their cybersecurity awareness policies and practices.

The survey confirmed that small businesses today are handling valuable information – 65 percent store customer data, 43 percent store financial records, 33 percent store credit card information, and 20 percent have intellectual property and other sensitive corporate content online.

Sixty-five percent of the business survey claimed that the Internet was critical to their businesses success yet they are doing very little to ensure that their employees and systems are not victims of a data breach.

The survey shows discrepancies between needs and actions regarding security policies and employee education on security best practices. Only 28 percent of U.S. small businesses have formal Internet security policies and just 35 percent provide ANY training to employees about Internet safety and security.

At the same time, 86 percent of these firms do not have anyone solely focused on information technology (IT) security. For those small businesses that do provide cybersecurity training, 63 percent provide less than 5 hours per year.

Photo by sundesigns/flaivoloka.

In Computers, Internet, Security | 1 Comment