The numbers are alarming:

• 43% of SMEs experienced a cyberattack last year.
• 80% of ransomware victims pay the ransom.
• Yet only 60% ever get most of their data back
• Often, the criminals demand even more money after the first payment.
• 60% of small businesses that suffer a severe attack go out of business within six months.
• 80% of attacks start with a simple phishing email.
• 50% of attacks linked to the client's use of AI

The harsh reality is this:

Cybercriminal marketing is growing, with more “junior” criminals joining and taking advantage of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) offered by the more veteran criminals. With the help of AI, the number of attacks and the cleverness of their targeting of SMEs are increasing faster. SMEs don’t have a strong enough defence, nor the skill to handle, and they pay out much quicker than the big companies, which have to follow legal procedures and involve an Incident Response (IR) team, so SME are becoming a lucrative market.

One of the solutions, which is the easiest and most reasonable, is staff training, as 80% of attacks start with an employee opening an infected email, which then leads to malware infection. These emails are fully automated by hackers. Cybercriminals are sending millions of these, targeting random email addresses. When a user clicks a link, software is launched, the hacker is notified, and they log in and gather intelligence about your system.

Hackers can be in your system for 3-6 months before they hit you and encrypt files. By this time, they know where your backup is, who has admin access, and so on.

When they hit, they start with your backups—encrypt all backup files, block access to the network and data —and nothing works. Then they demand Ransomware.

Other times, they don’t block your systems; they only steal data and threaten you later that they will leak your data on special “leak sites” or sell it to competitors unless you pay the ransom.

The worst case is when they have been inside your systems, stolen data you were not even aware of, and your competitor gets your secret data.

In my talk at the London Business Show on 12th November, titled Big Protection, Small Budget: Cybersecurity Made Simple for SMEs, I will give more details on why cybercriminals are targeting SMEs and the solution we have. We’ve developed a practical, scalable approach — combining staff awareness training, smart software, and automated recovery. This way, SMEs are better protected and recover more quickly if disaster strikes.

Find out more about Big Protection, Small Budget: Cybersecurity Made Simple for SMEs here.