Most SMBs suffer cyberattacks in past 12 months, says Cisco

MANILA, Philippines — More than half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the country have encountered a cyberattack in the past year, with over a quarter of them saying that these incidents cost their business at least P25 million, according to a new study by Cisco.

The study found that 57 percent of SMBs in the country suffered a cyber incident in the last 12 months, 73 percent of which lost customer information.

These incidents have had significant impact on their business, with the report indicating that 28 percent of those SMBs which suffered cyber incidents said these cost the business $500,000 or more, while 10 percent noted that the cost was $1 million or more.

Besides the loss of customer data, SMBs in Philippines that suffered a cyber incident also lost employee data (66 percent), sensitive business information (66 percent), internal emails (56 percent), financial information (53 percent), and intellectual property (53 percent).

Cisco said 65 percent admitted the incidents had a negative impact on their reputation.

According to the study, 16 percent of the country’s SMBs said that even a downtime of less than an hour results in severe operational disruption, while 28 percent said a downtime of between one to two hours can cause the same.

Further, 16 percent said a downtime of one day would result in a permanent closure of their organization.

Cisco said only nine percent of respondents said they were able to detect a cyber incident within an hour.

“It is critical for SMBs to be able to detect, investigate, and block or remediate any cyber incident in the shortest time possible. To be able to do that, they need solutions that are easy to deploy and use, integrate well with each other, and help them automate capabilities like detection, blocking, and remediation of cyber incidents,” said Juan Huat Koo, Cisco ASEAN director cybersecurity,

The report also showed that SMBs are becoming more apprehensive about cybersecurity risks, with 82 percent saying they are more worried about cybersecurity now than they were 12 months ago, and 89 percent saying they feel exposed to cyber threats.

Nearly half or 49 percent of the SMB respondents that suffered a cyberattack highlighted cybersecurity solutions not being adequate to detect or prevent the attack as the number one reason for these incidents.

Meanwhile, 13 percent attributed not having cybersecurity solutions in place as the top factor.

Malware attacks affected 81 percent of SMBs in Philippines, followed by phishing with 78 percent saying they experienced such attacks in the past year.

“Over the past 18 months, SMBs have leveraged technology to continue to operate and serve their customers even as they tackled the implications of the pandemic. This has seen an acceleration in digitalization of SMBs across Philippines,” said Robin Llamas, OIC and managing director of Cisco Philippines.

“As SMBs become more digital, they also become a more attractive target for malicious actors, not least because digitalized businesses have an expanded attach surface that hackers can target. In addition, digitalized SMBs generate more data, which the malicious actors put a high price on. All of this is fueling a critical need for them to invest in solutions and capabilities to ensure they are safeguarding themselves on the cybersecurity front,” he said.