“Unlike larger corporations, SMBs often lack the monetary resources and IT expertise to install and maintain the type of protection needed in the face of today’s growing malware threats. The real dichotomy here is that most of these companies think the real threats are viruses and worms, but the reality is the percentage of spyware is much higher and growing quickly,” said Peter Watkins, CEO, Webroot Software. “As a result, these companies are easier targets for cyber criminals when compared to larger companies with dedicated IT security resources.”

Consistent around the world, SMBs make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s business landscape, totaling more than 99.5 percent of all businesses in each country surveyed and representing more than 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in each country. Because of the sheer number of SMBs worldwide, they are easy for criminals to find and have several consistent internal attributes that heighten their Internet security risk, including:

Pervasive Internet use. Seventy-seven percent of SMBs said their success depends on the Internet.

Home-based and remote workers. Up to 52 percent of new businesses are home-based or remote.

The need to store valuable customer and employee data due to online sales.

According to the report released by Webroot, SMBs are increasingly connected in order to do business, but there are a number of other factors impacting their IT security, including:

• Lack of in-house security expertise.
• Limited budget and resource constraints.
• A constant struggle to keep pace with a growing mobile workforce.
• Absence of policies managing personal use of work computers.
• Increasing volume of sensitive customer and employee data.
• A rapidly evolving threat landscape.