ANTenna Blog -- Security

A new survey from security firm McAfee warns that small and midsize businesses don't consider themselves to be targets for cybercrime. Do their findings match your feelings? Let's hope not.

McAfee's report, "Does Size Matter? The security challenge of the SMB", paints a scary picture of small and midsize business's lack of security awareness -- and in some ways security concerns -- based on responses from 500 U.S. and Canadian companies with 2 to 1,000 employees.

According to McAfee findings:

More than a third of respondents were "not concerned” about their business being targeted by cybercriminals...

More than half felt their company wasn't prominent or well-known enough to be targeted...

46 percent felt they didn't have assets that could generate money for criminals...

44 percent felt cybercrime is a bigbiz/enterprise issue, not a small and midsize business threat.

Wrong on all accounts, of course, and not just because McAfee says so. (Admittedly, the company is selling small and midsize business security services, but the report itself is free from hard-sell. You can check out McAfee's small and midsize business security pitch here.)

But there's some hope in the figures: haif the respondents did express an awareness and understanding of just how serious the threat environment is, and how squarely it's aimed at small and midsize businesses, as it is at big enterprise.

Which half of the continuum do you, your business, your colleagues and employees fit into? Answer that and you'll be on your way to being better prepared -- or toward getting started toward being better prepared.

The full report is well worth reading, and well worth distributing throughout your company.

the bMighty ANTenna's take on the story is here.