This article is sponsored by Symantec.
Despite widespread confidence, cyber threats to small firms are quite real, with Federation of Small Business statistics pointing out that 41 per cent of small firms fell victim to cyber threats in 2013.
It’s quite shocking that small business priorities are more focused on finding and retaining customers and providing the best customer service according to Symantecs own research, especially when protection from external threats is important to 81 per cent of small businesses.
More surprising perhaps is the fact that small firms believe they could never be hit by a cyber attack. In fact, 82 per cent consider themselves too small to be a target.
Small businesses are the backbone to the UK economy so it’s great news that they are confident about future growth,” says Orla Murphy, EMEA small business strategist at Symantec. But if they are to achieve their business goals in the next year, they must understand just how vulnerable they are to external cyber threats that could impact their business in major ways.
Small businesses need to realise that attackers often use them as a means of entry to larger enterprises through the supply chain. Even though IT security is sometimes not a top priority for small businesses as their owners work really hard often undertaking multiple roles, there are lot of tools available designed especially for them, and so we want to make securing their business the easy part.
This sentiment was echoed by Mike Cherry, Federation of Small Businesses national policy chairman, who says: We need to do all we can to encourage small firms to grow and it’s vital businesses use the tools available to them to ensure theyre adequately protected. Businesses can no longer put their head in the sand hoping the threat of cyber attacks is going to go away, because it isnt.
With this in mind, Symantec introduced Norton Small Business in May 2014, a cybersecurity solution customised to support and protect small businesses with fewer than 20 employees, offering them a flexible subscription model that makes it easy to add or transfer licenses. Seven winners will receive one Norton Small Business subscription for one year covering five devices, with a retail value of 79.99.
The competition will close 8 September, with one winner chosen from each of the following regions: the South East, London, South West, Wales, Midlands, North East and Scotland/North and West/Northern Ireland.
To be eligible, he/she must tweet @Real_Business in 140 characters or less about:
1. Where the participant reveals their greatest IT security worries;
2. The town/city the participants business is located in; and
3. Adds @Norton_UK and #NortonSB in the text.
Alternatively, register here.
By doing the above, participants shall be deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions, which can be read on the site.
Note that each prize winner shall be notified via a direct message on Twitter from Symantec and that logistics for delivery of the prize will be discussed via twitter.
