Woburn, MA – October 20, 2016 – – Kaspersky Lab today released a survey report that confirms that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to bridge the gap between smaller IT security budgets and a shortage of expertise to face the very real and growing threat of cyber attacks. Over half (54 percent) of SMBs believe that their IT security will be compromised at some point and that preparation is essential, with 40 percent admitting that they lack sufficient insight or intelligence on the threats faced by the business.

The Evolving Role of SaaS and IT Outsourcing in SMB IT Security report, a result of Kaspersky Lab’s global research study1, uncovers the threats facing SMBs when dealing with increasingly complex security challenges. In response to new and emerging threats, SMBs are looking to bolster their protection. However, half of SMBs (50 percent) do not expect the budget allocated to hiring additional IT security staff to increase and only 10 percent say it will significantly increase.

For those SMBs without the necessary internal resources or available budgets, Security as a Service (SaaS) could be the answer, with almost half (40 percent) of businesses putting their trust in third parties by outsourcing IT infrastructure and processes. The report found that those that prioritize cloud security and business process outsourcing (BPO) are considerably happier with the efficiency of security consultancy (62 percent) and MSPs (59 percent). 17 percent have no plans to use an external IT security service provider but almost a quarter (23 percent) see this changing in the next 12 months.

In terms of the threat landscape, the research shows that the loss of internal and confidential data is the main concern for almost half (48 percent) of businesses. This concern is rightly justified when looking at the actual attacks experienced by SMBs, with 41 percent experiencing viruses and malware causing a loss of productivity, more than any other attack vector. Additionally, over half (55 percent) of SMBs claim to be worried about how trends such as BYOD adoption make managing security more difficult.

“The report shows that SMBs currently face a number of challenges when it comes to protecting their businesses from security threats,” said Vladimir Zapolyansky, head of SMB marketing, Kaspersky Lab. “On the one hand, they typically have a lack of resources, budgets and security expertise that can make them attractive to cybercriminals. On the other hand, increasingly complex security environments resulting from trends such as the volume of mobile devices they need to protect requires action. This makes it all the more important to spend budgets wisely and look at other options for remaining vigilant and getting the protection they need, and by taking a SaaS approach to security, SMBs can take advantage of endpoint security solutions without having the hefty budgets of enterprise counterparts.”

The full report titled, “The Evolving Role of SaaS and IT Outsourcing in SMB IT Security,” is available at Kaspersky Lab’s website here.