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“The fact that small businesses are the target of 7m attacks a year should come as no surprise as many small businesses have developed through their digital footprint, and digital will continue to be one of the major factors in small business development and growth. In addition, small business are often part of larger organisations’ supply chains and are therefore a target entry point. Many small businesses may not see themselves as a target due to their size, but size does not matter.

“Industrial strength security may appear to be the preserve of the enterprise, but successful small businesses will recognise the issue and should see good basic security practice as being a ‘differentiator’ for them as a supplier and in building the trust of their clients.

“To combat today’s threat, small businesses should take a proactive approach when it comes to security. Implementing a basic security framework through understanding the threat will allow them to get on the front foot in combating attacks, ensuring that these threats don’t come to pass. In parallel, small businesses need to look at embedding baseline security education early on to ensure everyone is engaged and part of the overall organisational resilience. This should also be seen as an investment in the company’s growth plan as getting good security practice baked in when you are small is better than trying to applying it to a much larger organisation, as you can set the culture early on in the company’s lifecycle.

“A good place to start is the UK government’s 10 steps to security, the Cloud Security Alliance or the SANS Top 20.”