Most small-business owners (78 percent) still don't have a cyberattack response plan, even though more than half (54 percent) were victim to at least one type of cyberattack.
The findings stem from Nationwide's second annual Small Business Indicator, a national survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Nationwide from June 10-23 among 502 U.S. small-business owners with fewer than 300 employees.
"Cyber criminals are getting more sophisticated and realizing that small businesses are easy targets," said Mark Berven, president of Nationwide Property & Casualty, the No. 1 total small-business insurer. "That's why we wanted to raise awareness of this trend for both agents and their small-business clients during National Cyber Security Awareness Month."
According to the survey, 45 percent of small-business owners who do not have a cyberattack response plan in place said they don't feel their company will be affected by a cyberattack (compared to 40 percent last year).
At the same time, the majority (68 percent) are at least somewhat concerned about a potential cyberattack affecting their business — especially since 54 percent were victim to at least one type of the following attacks:
- Computer virus (37 percent)
- Phishing (20 percent)
- Trojan horse (15 percent)
- Hacking (11 percent)
- Unauthorized access to customer information (7 percent)
- Unauthorized access to company information (7 percent)
- Issues due to unpatched software (6 percent)
- Data breach (6 percent)
- Ransomware (4 percent)