small business stressed on technology

Small businesses stressed on technology

Author:

Joe O'Halloran

Posted:

09:45 03 Jun 2008

A new You Gov survey into British UK small business (SMBs) attitudes to operational business anxieties reveals that technology not working (42% of all respondents) is the number one work issue that causes anxiety.

The survey commissioned by internet content security technology provider Trend Micro, found that technology worries carried equal weight of concern with difficult clients and suppliers. Heavy workloads (30%), tight deadlines (26%) and long hours (19%) were the next highest ranking issues causing concern.

The SMBs also expressed a general concern regarding loss of confidential data with one in ten of all businesses worried. When asked about electronic crime, the majority of all respondents (83%) said they had not been a victim of electronic crime in the last 12 months, flying in the face of the fact that recorded volumes of electronic crime attacks are growing and are increasingly targeted at the SMB community.

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This should be a worry, says Trend, as it feels that SMBs do not necessary have the resources or systems to protect themselves and that as these attacks are hidden, many small businesses may not know when an electronic crime is being committed.

It cites an example of when in May 2008 over half a million websites were infected with malicious code. Trend says that most of these were small business websites typically made up of old and unsecured coding and running on older or unpatched web server and operating systems.

Furthermore, the security company says that these sites are easy targets for cyber criminals looking to hijack commercial websites for financial gain and identity fraud. Most of the UK businesses affected were sole-traders relying on their web presence for revenue generation.

Commenting on the survey, Paul Burke, SMB Product Marketing Manager - EMEA at Trend Micro said, "Information technology problems top the list of everyday anxieties for small businesses. The survey also suggests that we need to do much more to better inform and help the small business community about the new generation of security threats that are attacking their IT infrastructure silently and with potentially devastating effects to their reputation and finances."