Even microbusinesses are at high risk of cyberattacks

Ransomware hitting multinational businesses may grab headlines, but doesn’t mean microbusinesses aren’t as important of a target for criminals. In fact, a report from GoDaddy says many of the UK’s smaller businesses were hit by ransomware over the last year, resulting in loss of funds and a negative impact on reputation.

What’s more - most microbusinesses have no protection deployed for their websites. 

Polling 2,000 UK respondents for the report, the website builder found more than a third (34%) of UK’s microbusinesses suffered a cybersecurity incident in the past year, costing them roughly $226 million. 

A quarter (24%) suffered financial losses, with a fifth (21%) losing more than $1,300 in the process, and many saw their websites shut down, in some cases for as long as a week, and in 14% of cases, even longer. 

Reputational damage

Besides losing money, many firms worry about the reputational consequences of a data breach, and GoDaddy found that 15% of customers wouldn’t shop with a breached business, while a further 47% said such an incident would “negatively impact the likelihood” to buy there again. 

For many consumers, their opinion of a brand would diminish following a data breach, “no matter how large and well-known” it was, while a quarter (23%) would even warn family and friends against buying there. 

For Ben Law, Head of GoDaddy UK and Ireland, smaller businesses have a lot more to lose, as percentage-wise, the financial impact could be greater. “With the right tools and solutions in place, it’s possible to further protect your online business and company and customer data,” he said.

GoDaddy’s report also found that almost two-thirds (59%) of microbusinesses don’t have any sort of protection for their websites, while a further 26% said they never bought, or researched, any website protection or security solutions. 

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