One out of Three SMBs in Latin America Has Experienced Security Breaches

SMBs in the LAM region are familiar with cyber risks and have specific goals for security and storage, 33 percent of them have faced a security breach, which means that their information has been lost, stolen or accessed without authorization

Key findings of the 2009 Security and Storage Small and Midsized Business (SMB) survey in Latin America. The study was conducted during the first quarter of 2009 and targeted 1,425 small and midsized sized businesses (10-500 employees) located in 17 countries around the globe, with 300 respondents from Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

One out of Three SMBs in Latin America Has Experienced Security Breaches

The study reveals that although SMBs in the region are familiar with cyber risks and have specific goals for security and storage, 33 percent of them have faced a security breach, which means that their information has been lost, stolen or accessed without authorization.

According to the study, the top three security concerns for SMBs in the region are viruses (77 percent), data breaches (73 percent), as well as laptops and remote devices connecting to the network (72 percent), but only 8 percent cited to be extremely concerned about data breaches.

SMBs Facing Security Issues

Small and midsized businesses in Latin America seem to be aware of the importance of security for their organizations, but more than half have not implemented endpoint protection to keep their confidential data safe and prevent data breaches. Despite understanding the security risks they face, a surprising number of SMBs in Latin America are not implementing basic security practices.

For example, 29 percent of small and medium sized businesses in the region do not have the most basic protection – an antivirus. While 36 percent do not have an antispam solution and 52 percent have not implemented an endpoint solution (software that protects “endpoints” such as laptops, desktops and servers against malware).

The survey investigated several variables to determine the reasons why SMBs in Latin America are not fully protecting their company’s confidential data. When asked to identify the top barriers for creating a more secure environment, the survey found these main responses:

43 percent of SMBs felt that there was a lack of employee skills
37 percent mentioned their short budgets as an obstacle to complete all security related tasks
28 percent cited time and awareness of current IT security threats as an issue

Backup Solutions in SMBs

When it comes to the goals on data protection, the survey found that 94 percent of the respondents in Latin America consider backup and recovery of their data as something important for their organization, followed by disaster recovery strategy (92 percent) and archiving (83 percent).

Despite this, 48 percent of SMBs in Latin America do not have a backup solution for their desktops, leaving important information at risk. Installing desktop and server backup solutions is an easy task that can help small businesses and to recover their information when many of these incidents occur.

Recommendations for Small Businesses

Symantec encourages SMBs to employ defense-in-depth technology including antivirus, antispam, and firewall technology to protect their information.

Protection Suite Small Business Edition is an easy-to-use suite that protects critical business assets by offering security against today’s malware and spam threats and by having the capability to rapidly recover client computer systems.

The solution combines advanced security, antispam and mail security software together with backup and recovery.

Internet Security Threat Report

To better enable you to implement effective security measures, Symantec provides detailed reports of trends, impact and preventive measures that you can deploy to protect and manage your information.

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report offers analysis and discussion of threat activity over a one-year period. It covers Internet threat activities, vulnerabilities, malicious code, phishing, spam and security risks as well as future trends.

Find out more in the latest Internet Threat Report from Symantec.