Symantec - SMBs Not Doing Enough to Safeguard Information

Symantec Corp., on April 9, 2009, published the results of a survey, "2009 Storage and Security in SMBs," it carried out in February 2009. The research discovered that although SMBs are aware of Internet dangers, most of them do not have taken the fundamental safeguards for their businesses.

The study reveals that while SMBs clearly consider computer viruses and worms as their greatest security concern, over 70% have expressed that they are worried about spam scams and data theft. The survey participants (94%) also say that safeguarding their servers, networks and information is their most important objective.

However, 59% of respondents report that they do not have an end-point protection i.e. programs that safeguard 'end points' like desktops, servers and laptops from malware. Moreover, according to the study, while 42% of SMBs lack anti-spam software, 33% do not use an antivirus, the most fundamental safeguard for computers.

Kevin Murray, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Symantec, says that a lot of SMBs are in a dilemma. They know that they should strengthen their IT security infrastructure, but are not sure how they can do so, given the limited resources, as reported by StockHouse on April 9, 2009.

Murray added that SMBs' counterpart enterprises believed that security risks for SMBs were growing in number, frequency and complexity and the scale of information.

As per the research, when there is IT loss for the SMBs, the area that is usually hit is one that could have been protected with simple safety measures. SMBs (33%) also report a dearth of awareness about existing threats.

Ray Boggs, Vice President of SMB Research at IDC, said that while SMBs certainly knew better, they often concentrated much on business opportunities outside their organization and they paid the least attention to the dangers right within their company, as reported by ITWorld on April 9, 2009.

Boggs commented that SMBs operated in an environment replete with risk, but a lot of them took chances via their IT security failures that otherwise should have been much more.

Related article: Sentence for American Contractor for Sabotaging Government Navy Computers

» SPAMfighter News - 4/16/2009