ChannelVision Magazine

CYBER PATROL For the third consecutive year, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have reported a significant increase in targeted cybersecurity breaches, according to a new global survey by The Ponemon Institute, with the attacks, particularly in the U.S., U.K. and Europe, growing in both fre - quency and sophistication. “Cybercriminals are continuing to evolve their attacks with more sophis - ticated tactics, and companies of all sizes are in their crosshairs,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute. In the U.S., 76 percent of SMBs surveyed were attacked within the last 12 months, up from 55 percent in 2016. Globally, 66 percent of respondents reported attacks in the same timeframe. When attacked, data loss was among the most common impacts. Globally, 63 percent of SMBs reported an incident involving the loss of sensitive informa - tion about customers and employees in the past year. That number is 69 percent in the U.S., an increase from 50 percent in 2016. Overall, “attacks are becoming more sophisticated,” said the report, with phishing (57 percent), com - promised or stolen devices (33 percent) and credential theft (30 percent) among the most common attacks waged against SMBs globally. Perhaps the increasing rate of attack on SMBs is to be expected. After all, SMBs globally are adopting emerging technologies such as mobile devices, IoT and biometrics despite a lack of confidence in their ability to pro - tect their sensitive information, show Ponemon’s findings. Nearly half (48 percent) of SMB respondents access more than 50 percent of their busi - ness-critical applications from mobile devices, yet virtually the same portion of respondents (49 percent) said the use of mobile devices to access busi - ness-critical applications diminishes their organization’s security posture.  In addition, a full 80 percent of re - sponding SMBs think it’s likely that a security incident related to unsecured IoT devices could be catastrophic, yet only 21 percent monitor the risk of IoT devices in the workplace. The study also suggests biometrics may be be - coming mainstream; three-quarters of SMBs currently use biometrics to iden - tify and authenticate or have plans to do so soon. Overall, nearly half of the 2,000 SMB respondents described their organization’s IT posture as ineffective, with 39 percent reporting they have no incident response plan in place. U.S. businesses express the most confidence in their in-house security expertise even though 82 percent of U.S. respondents reported experienc - ing a cyberattack in their organization’s lifetime, which is higher than any other region. Nearly 9 in 10 (88 percent) of U.S. respondents indicated they spend less than 20 percent of their overall IT budget on security. Incidentally, U.S. businesses are nearly twice as likely to be the victim of a cyberattack due to a company insider (77 percent) versus an external hacker (40 percent). Unisys formally launched its Global Channel Partner Pro - gram for the Unisys Stealth suite of solutions, among other security products and services. Registered partners have access to discounts, demos, col - lateral, co-branded materials and customizable marketing cam - paigns related to Stealth and other Unisys security offerings. Addi - tional benefits include webinars, partner roadshows and regional events later in 2020. Partner-specific solution overviews with use cases and case studies are also available. The new program designates partners at three performance-based tiers – platinum, gold and silver – with an array of benefits assigned to each tier. Unisys also announced the availability of Stealth 5.0, the latest version of its security software, which now provides protection for data in container and Kubernetes environ - ments, improving data center security and securing new workloads. Stealth brings clients “always on” security and resilience, said the company, and should an attacker get inside, Stealth prevents data exfiltration. Cyberattacks on SMBs Rising, More Sophisticated Unisys Launches Resellers Program ed tremendous value for shareholders e * Figures (n) refer to 2018, 2023 device share Source: Blackberry Cylance Who Discovers Network Brownouts Source: Netrounds Top Barriers the Channel Experiences in the Cybersecurity Market ng or Currently % 46% 10.1 16.9 36.9 33.6 32.0 +89% etCo* 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 ServCo Before separation After separation O2 return on invested capital % (including goodwill and intangibles) 22 2023 Other (2.1%,3.9%) Tablets (4%,3%) PCs (7%,4%) TVs (13%,11%) Non-Smartphones (13%,5%) Smartphones (27%,23%) M2M (33%, 50%) 51% 50% 45% 40% 37% 48% 43% 37% 42% Technology Software Phishing/social engineering Web-based attack General malware Compromised/stolen devices Credential theft Advanced malware/zero day attacks Denial of services SQL injection Account takeover Malicious insider Cross-site scripting Other Other 3% 22% What type of attacks did your business ever experience? More than one choice allowed Source: The Ponemon Institute 53% 50% 39% 37% 29% 29% 29% 21% 19% 16% 12% 3% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 14% 5% 42% 39% Never Reported Customers & Employees IT/NetOps Other Budget Constraints #1 Limited s lutions knowledge #2 Limited time to research new threats #3 Lack of manpower to monitor and manage security #4 Rogue employees #5 Pricing/margin issues #6 Discoverability of solutions #7 52 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020