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IT & Tech problems are small firms’ No 1 concern
04/06/08
A new You Gov
survey into British UK small business attitudes to operational
business anxieties reveals that technology not working (42% of all
respondents) is the number one work issue that causes anxiety,
alongside with difficult clients and suppliers (42%) which cause the
same level of concern. Heavy workloads (30%), tight deadlines (26%)
and long hours (19%) were the next highest ranking issues causing
concern.
The survey
commissioned by Trend Micro, a global leader in internet content
security, also asked small businesses about their anxiety regarding
business-related crime. Fear of theft and office break-ins ranked
low as issues causing most anxiety (9%) of all respondents ranked
this as a top three concern. But there were some regional variations
with more than one in ten London respondents (13%) saying business
crime was one of their top three concerns. This compared with 3% of
Scottish respondents. Anxiety over loss of confidential data was
more of a general concern with one in ten of all businesses worried
about this; respondents in London and Midlands/Wales registered a
slightly higher level of concern (12%).
When asked
about electronic crime, the majority of all respondents (83%) said
they had not been a victim of electronic crime in the last 12
months. Once again there were some interesting regional anomalies
with 18% of Scottish respondents saying they had suffered at least
one incident in the last year.
This low rate
of reported incidents among small businesses comes as the recorded
volume of electronic crime attacks grows and is increasingly
targeted at small businesses that do not necessary have the
resources or systems to protect themselves. A further worry is
that these attacks are hidden and many small businesses may not know
when an electronic crime is being committed.
For example,
in May 2008 over half a million websites were infected with
malicious code. Most of these were small business websites typically
made up of old and unsecured coding and running on older or
un-patched web server and operating systems. These sites are easy
targets for cyber criminals looking to hijack commercial websites
for financial gain and identity fraud. Most of the UK businesses
affected were sole-traders relying on their web presence for revenue
generation.
Paul Burke,
SMB Product Marketing Manager - EMEA at Trend Micro says:
"Information technology problems top the list of everyday anxieties
for small businesses. The survey also suggests that we need to do
much more to better inform and help the small business community
about the new generation of security threats that are attacking
their IT infrastructure silently and with potentially devastating
effects to their reputation and finances. Our Worry-Free initiative
is geared specifically to provide these businesses with both support
and guidance on how to better protect themselves without adding to
their IT anxieties and having to become an IT security expert."
While putting
into place comprehensive security software is key, Trend Micro
suggests a number of tips on how small businesses can protect their
assets, their customer information and, most importantly, their
reputation:
* Ensure that
all employees use effective passwords, and when possible, stronger
authentication technology. Encourage passwords that are comprised of
different upper and lower case letter characters and change them
frequently
* Discourage
employee downloads from non-trusted sources such as peer-to-peer and
video
* Protect your
network; by ensuring that PCs and laptops are protected by
firewalls, anti-virus software and web threat protection both
within the office network as well as when mobile working
* Keep all
operating systems and software up-to-date, as without updates, your
systems will not be well protected against new cyber threats
* Create and
manage back-ups. It is best to store secured copies and use
encryption to protect sensitive records about employees, suppliers
and customers
* Maximise
encryption. You should protect customer data by encrypting it with
passwords or encryption keys
* Don't leave
sensitive data saved on a handheld or mobile device, in case it is
stolen or lost
* Keep in mind
that your company will grow, and shop for security solutions that
will grow with your business's pace
Nick Gibson, editor
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