Or at least they think they are. Wednesday, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) released the ITRC 2022 Business Impact Report. Here are some of the findings.

For the ITRC 2022 Business Impact report, the ITRC surveyed 447 small business owners, leaders and employees to explore the impacts of cybercrimes on small businesses. According to the responses, cybersecurity incidents targeting small businesses increased by 61 percent during the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 but have dropped slightly in the past 12 months. Less than half (45 percent) of small businesses reported a security breach, data breach, or both, down from the 58 percent that reported a cybercrime in the 2021 report.

Perhaps most notably, 70 percent of small businesses believe they are ready to protect against a cyberattack or recover from a data breach, after investing in more security tools and training

Here are some other notable findings from the ITRC 2022 Business Impact report:

• Overall, more than 45 percent of small businesses lost revenue due to a cybercrime. Generally, small businesses lost less money as a result of a cyber incident in the last year, with one key exception – victims of social media account takeover. (Companies paying less than $250K grew by 11 percentage points; businesses paying $250K-$500K dropped six (6) points over the previous year.)
• However, 50 percent of small businesses surveyed reported losing control of a social media account to a cybercriminal, with 87 percent of the victims losing revenue generated by the account. More than one-third (34 percent) of victims lost between $1,000 and $10,000.
• Fewer small businesses reported experiencing a data breach in the past 12 months (23 percent), a two (2) percentage point decrease from 2021. However, the number of small businesses reporting a first-time breach jumped 17 points from 2021.
• Nearly 30 percent of small businesses lost customer trust and had difficulty responding to customer concerns.
• More than 40 percent of small businesses struggled to understand what happened and why it happened.

The 56-page ITRC 2022 Business Impact report, chock-full of graphics and stats is available for download here. Check it out!

So, what do you think? Are you surprised that the ITRC 2022 Business Impact report shows that 70 percent of small businesses think they’re ready for a cyberattack? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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