The best way to protect your business is to know what you need to protect it from. Last week, Symantec security experts Kevin Haley and Jay Epton engaged in a Twitter chat with Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends to discuss the findings of the Internet Security Threat Report Vol. 18 (ISTR), which reveals the current state of the threat landscape and an increase in focus being placed on SMBs by attackers. More than 600 tweets explore how cybercriminals are working to steal intellectual property and other confidential information from SMBs, and what you can do to protect your business.

If you missed the #SMBchat, here are some of the questions that were asked, with responses from Symantec experts and the SMB participants.

We keep hearing that cybercriminals change their tactics. What is the big takeaway from the ISTR 18?

• Small businesses are now the target of 31% of all attacks, a threefold...

How can you protect the information that’s driving your business if you don’t know what you’re protecting it from? How can you reduce the risk of passing this risk on to your customers, and potentially your large business partners? One of the most fundamental ways to protect your business is to know what you need to protect it from. Knowing the enemy is the goal of Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume 18 and, according to the new report, criminals view SMBs as a prime target for stealing information. In fact, 31 percent of all targeted attacks are now directed at those with 250 employees or less, a threefold increase from 2011. This is especially concerning given the 2011 SMB Threat Awareness Poll, which showed that half of SMBs don’t consider themselves a target for attacks.

Cybercriminals are targeting customer...

By Josh Cook, IT director for The Cardiac and Vascular Institute and a Symantec Customer

In healthcare IT, we have one overriding priority: the security of personal health information (PHI). Like many fast growing healthcare practices, this was a challenge for The Cardiac and Vascular Institute (TCAVI), which was formed from the merger of two cardiology groups. When I was brought in to merge the IT departments, I found a mixed bag of antivirus solutions on the computers, some with no protection at all. This was a serious issue when it comes to protecting the PHI of patients. But with limited IT staff, we needed an endpoint security solution that we could administer and manage easily.

One pressing issue was that we contract more than a dozen external medical transcriptionists to create digital copies of medical records. These contractors work from home and were accessing our network via VPN, but many had no antivirus or they had trial versions of consumer AV software...

The SMB community plays a vital role in a healthy economy. Growing a small business presents a variety of challenges, particularly when it comes to selecting the right technologies. The explosive growth of data, the use of mobile devices in the workplace (BYOD), as well as cloud and virtualization technologies are creating a seemingly endless array of technologies to choose from for SMBs. Symantec understands the challenges these choices present and is committed to providing the solutions that are cost-effective, easy to deploy and provide the best possible user experience.

Leading this charge are Symantec executives from around the globe. Having three Symantec executives named to the SMB 150 Channel Influencers List is an honor for Symantec and speaks to dedication we have to the SMB...