Canadian SME employees lack confidence in firm cybersecurity

TORONTO—Only 26 per cent of Canadian employees at small and medium-sized enterprises are very confident that their organization would be able to keep their business and its information safe from a cyberattack.

This is according to new research from the Canadian division of Slovakian IT security firm ESET.

The research also reveals 46 per cent of Canadian SME employees believe their business is at risk of experiencing a cybersecurity attack, while almost three quarters believe cyberattacks on businesses in general have increased within the last several years.

However, despite this level of concern among SME employees, a majority say they spend enough time and money protecting their data.

Only 14 per cent of respondents admitted their firms do not spend enough time and money on cybersecurity.

“Canadian businesses believe that cyberattacks are on the rise, but they don’t spend enough time and money to mitigate against them,” said Iva Peric-Lightfoot, country manager, ESET Canada. “Safeguarding your business against cyberattacks is not only about the physical systems and software in place that protect your data, but also the policies and procedures that help eliminate human error.”

When asked to identify factors that contribute to concerns about their organization’s level of cybersecurity, SME employees pointed out the following issues:

• Lack of knowledge among staff about how their organization could be attacked (35 per cent)
• Lack of knowledge about how their organization is currently being protected (24 per cent)
• Lack of time spent on staying current with cybersecurity issues (23 per cent)
• Lack of investment in cybersecurity protection systems (19 per cent)