Introduction
Industry reports and surveys paint a frightening picture of the cybersecurity landscape for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs): Between 2019 and 2020, cyber intrusions increased by 400 percent around the world, while the FBI received up to 4,000 cyberattack-related complaints per day.1 Forty percent of cyberattacks target SMBs, and up to half of all SMBs experience a breach each year.2 In 2020, the total cost of ransomware payments was $350 million, a 311 percent increase from the previous year.3 In 2020, the average cost of repairing a data breach was $2.64 million for companies with fewer than 500 workers.4 A report on critical infrastructure SMBs found that 46 percent of hacked companies lost customers and 59 percent reported losses in daily productivity because of a breach.5 No wonder 60 percent of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyber incident.6
