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Small Businesses Turn to Managed Service Providers for Security

A new report by Continuum shows not only that small- to midsized businesses (SMBs) increasingly understand that their cyber defenses are falling short, but also that many smaller firms are willing to spend more on managed services if these offer better security.

A whopping 90% of SMBs would think about switching managed services providers (MSPs) if this improves their security posture, while almost half of smaller organizations wouldn’t mind the costs for managed services going up by 20% or more if this means that they receive a great security solution. Furthermore, 78% of SMBs will be increasing their cybersecurity spending in any case in the next year.

The willingness of small and mid-sized firms to spend more on security is not surprising when the costs of suffering a cyberattack are taken into account. On average, an attack will set an SMB back $54,650. While the costs tend to be lower for smaller firms than for bigger ones, the difference isn’t that big. For very small companies with between 10 and 24 employees, the average costs of a cybersecurity incident are $38,437, while larger organizations with between 500 and 1,000 employees can expect to pay $70,357 per attack.

Read more: Small Businesses Turn to Managed Service Providers for Security