Most small and midsize businesses (SMBs) consider focusing on cybersecurity a lower priority than financial success, but that’s a mistake. Without the right security in place, many SMBs may no longer have a business to worry about.
In fact, SMBs are more likely to experience a breach than larger companies, with the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report finding that 61% of breach victims were smaller businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees. With the average SMB breach costing $36,000 and, in some cases, reaching up to $50,000 per incident.
With so much at stake, why do SMBs put cybersecurity on the back burner? Unfortunately, many believe:
- Business growth is more important. Many SMB CEOs don’t realize just how important cybersecurity is to their long-term health. As a result, they tend to focus on issues they know are important like product development, marketing and sales. Consequently, when a breach strikes, most don’t have the staff or expertise to effectively identify and respond, putting their entire business at risk.
- Cybersecurity is too complicated. Just like larger businesses, SMBs are becoming more dependent on mobile, cloud and other new technologies. But while these new initiatives promise increased productivity and efficiency and better customer experiences, they also tend to be complicated — not only to deploy, but also secure.
To keep themselves out of the news, SMBs need to up their security game, but in a way that doesn’t add complexity or overburden their already stretched staffs. They need strong security solutions that are:
- Comprehensive: Today’s SMB workforces are more likely to use a laptop, tablet or mobile phone than a traditional wired desktop. Therefore, their security platforms must be comprehensive enough to include remote access and virtual private network (VPN) support, as well as Web antivirus, email threat detection and other tools across wired and wireless networks.
- Easy to deploy/scale: Instead of deploying a bunch of point security tools, SMBs need options that consolidate key capabilities, such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, secure Web gateways, email protections and more in a single platform that’s easy to deploy and scale.
- Cloud-managed: Good security requires good visibility, across all types of applications and networks. Point solutions use their own management consoles and unique reporting options to deliver insight into only small slices of the environment, leaving many areas unmonitored and open to exploit. SMBs need tools that offer centralized, cloud-based management and reporting that makes it easy to see the entire network end to end from a single pane of glass, streamlining security event monitoring, detection and mitigation.
Fortinet’s Connected UTM solution checks off all of these boxes. It offers the comprehensive, market-leading security capabilities you need in a scalable, easy-to-deploy and manage appliance. As a Fortinet partner, CCSI has the expertise to ensure your business gets all the benefits of Fortinet’s top-rated security and simplicity tailored to your unique business needs. Contact us.
