In the world of cyber security, small businesses are considered “soft targets.” In the coming year there’s an effort to help protect 10,000 Michigan businesses from the growing threat.
A small business cyber security breach is costly. Factor in downtime, lost business opportunities, security upgrades and the reputational hit taken and a 2015 Kaspersky Lab study finds the average cost of a cyber security breach is a loss of $55,000 dollars.
“There’s a range of challenges that small businesses face with cyber security.”
That’s Keith Brophy, State Director of the Michigan Small Business Development Center. He tells us the mission is to provide guidance through the new “Small Business, Big Threat” program made possible with funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business are assisting along with Michigan-based tech companies providing best practices.
“We’ve worked together to make the advice about staying safe accessible to the non-techy small business. So we’re trying to make the information very relevant, very practical, very easy to digest to the small business that doesn’t have an in-house tech staff.”
The initiative will offer webinars, in-person presentations, action plans and an on-line assessment tool that can be found at www.smallbusinessbigthreat.org.
