intelligent

THE MOST IMPORTANT

THING FOR SMES IS TO REMAIN AWARE OF THE

DATA WHICH

THEY HAVE ACCESS TO AND TO THINK ABOUT WHAT KIND OF USE THIS DATA COULD BE IN THE WRONG HANDS .

Earlier this year , a survey by the Department for Digital , Culture , Media and Sport ( DCMS ) found around half of micro and small businesses ( 52 %) reported falling victim to a cybersecurity breach or cyberattack in the past year .

The average cost to these businesses was nearly £ 1,000 – rising to more than £ 3,000 for some .

The Small Business Guide is part of a collection of NCSC guidance which has been reviewed and refreshed to offer up-to-date tips on implementing key security controls .

This includes the Small Business Guide : ‘ Actions ’ resource , which breaks down the recommendations into individual steps , and the Response and Recovery guidance which outlines how to prepare , manage , resolve and report an incident if one does occur .

Jamie Ahktar , Co-Founder and CEO at CyberSmart

The NCSC has published tailored advice and guidance to support all organisations , including how they can securely move their physical operations online and safely scale-up home working .

We asked Jamie Ahktar , Co-founder and CEO at CyberSmart , for his view on how SMEs can keep their data secure . . . .

Jamie Ahktar , Co-founder and CEO at CyberSmart

For the average SME , cybersecurity can be a scary thing to think about . Without the funding , expertise or staff to throw a dedicated cybersecurity team at the problem , it is incredibly common for security to fall through the cracks when businesses are developing and growing at lightning speed .

Small businesses often don ’ t see themselves as a likely target , but when you look at the data , small businesses are breached at an alarmingly regular rate – much more than their