Is Your Small Business Cyber-Aware?

January 7, 2015

Twenty-three percent of small business respondents to a CyberRx survey from e-Management say their organizations never provide cybersecurity awareness training. Twenty-eight percent say they are “unfamiliar” with the new NIST cybersecurity framework.

However, 63 percent of small businesses do provide some sort of periodic cyber awareness training to protect data and infrastructure, the survey says. Forty-five percent of respondents say “the government should mandate small businesses…to adopt the new NIST cybersecurity framework.”

All in all, 63 percent of small businesses surveyed at the 2014 CyberMaryland Conference are insecure about their continuous monitoring efforts for potential security threats. While small businesses are becoming more ready for cybersecurity threats, there is still a long way to go.

Ransomware and the propulsion of the extortion economy has rapidly eclipsed into a national priority. Recently, we observed the catastrophic impact of a widescale ransomware attack impacting gas pipelines and raising national gas prices overnight.