South African SMEs, often described as the backbone of the economy, play a critical role in job creation. But they are under severe operational pressure, exacerbated by growing cyber risk.
Sudesh Pillay, executive head of iStore Business, says cyber crime presents one of the most serious threats to SME survival: “In the South African market, 70% of new businesses fail in their first year and only around 30% make it past year three. They are under a great deal of pressure and completely focused on being operational. A lack of awareness and resources puts SMEs at significant business risk .
Pillay notes that SMEs are particularly vulnerable to cyber attackers, who take advantage of their lack of preparedness. “If you consider that the average cost of a data breach is nearly $5 million, according to IBM, the impacts of an attack could be financially devastating for a small business. In addition, downtime due to a breach would derail operations and damage their relationships with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders,” he says.
The impacts can be so devastating that reports out of the UK suggest that as many as 60% of SMEs who fall victim to a cyber attack go out of business within six months.
Pillay says most small business owners are aware that cyber crime exists, but believe they are adequately protected by anti-virus software and automatic cloud archiving of their data.
“SMEs generally don’t have the knowledge or resources to proactively protect their data – and their businesses,” he says.
iStore Business, with over 25 000 active SME customers, is working to help SMEs reduce their cyber risk with a portfolio of enterprise grade cyber security solutions priced for SMEs, Pillay says.
“Building on top of the inherent security of Apple devices, our iStore Business InfoSec Cyber Defence solutions are designed to enhance security and resilience for businesses as small as one- or two-user businesses run from home. We’ve brought to market a suite of solutions available individually or bundled, to help SMEs proactively protect their businesses against cyber risk and become compliant. Our consultants will work with them to identify their risks and select solutions to mitigate these, and our security operations centre has technical resources available to support them. Over 500 SMEs depend on these services to secure their businesses.”
iStore Business InfoSec Cyber Defence portfolio includes SentinelOne EDR to protect endpoints, Acronis Cloud Backup to protect against malware and accidental deletion, and AI-Powered Perception Point e-mail filtering. The solutions can be easily deployed via Apple MDM and include access to a team of cyber analysts to proactively manage and support the solution.
You can watch the full video of this interview here: https://www.itweb.co.za/videos/dgp45qaB3WGvX9l8
To learn more about iStore Business infosec solutions, visit: https://www.istore.co.za/business-info-security
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