Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country who participated in a study said cyber attacks took away ₹3.5 crore to ₹7 crore of their revenues in the last 12 months.
Some 62% of SMBs said they incurred business losses of more than ₹3.5 crore while some 13% of respondents lost over ₹7 crore, because of cyber intrusions, in the last one year, said a study by Cisco on September 27.
Some 74% of domestic SMBs witnessed a cyber incident in the past year, resulting in 85% of them losing customer information to malicious actors, in addition to a tangible impact on business.
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In India, malware attacks, which affected 92% of SMBs, topped the charts, followed by phishing (76%). Some 38% of those that suffered incidents said the number one cause was not having cyber security solutions. Meanwhile, 36% ranked cyber security solutions not being adequate to detect or prevent the attack as the number one reason, as per the study conducted among 1,014 SMBs in the country.
SMBs that suffered a cyber incident also lost internal emails (73%), employee data (71%), intellectual property (74%), and financial information (75%). In addition, 73% of those said it disrupted their operations, 76% admitted it negatively impacted their reputation, and 70% said it resulted in a loss of customer trust, the study further said.
Most SMBs (97%) felt they had too many technologies and struggled to integrate them all.
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“As they digitise, SMBs are embracing the fact that any transformation, especially one that allows them to meet customers where they are and build trust, must begin with cybersecurity,” said Panish P.K., Managing Director — Small Business, Cisco India & SAARC.
Around the preparedness, the study found, some 89% of SMBs in India have completed scenario planning and/or simulations for potential cyber security incidents in the past 12 months. Most enterprises have their cyber response (91%) and recovery plans (92%) in place.