United States. A publication on the results of a research project to understand the state of cybersecurity in modern SMEs has been revealed by the firm Senseon. The research revealed that while a significant proportion of SMEs believe in their current approach to security, they are having difficulties when it comes to budget allocation.
There is growing uncertainty about whether the investment in the security solutions they are currently using is worth it. The survey also reveals that SMBs have been slow to implement AI solutions, even though the vast majority of SMBs surveyed (81 percent) think AI will be critical to the future of cybersecurity.
Misallocating security budgets is leaving SMEs at risk
Although 88 percent of SMBs have a dedicated security budget, more than half (53 percent) thought a larger budget would help them deal with their cybersecurity workload, suggesting that their current allocation of resources is inefficient.
The majority of security professionals (56 percent) believe that the answer to strengthening their security is to buy more solutions. However, the research also revealed that security professionals are not sure of receiving an ROI (Return on Investment) on their current solutions, with 49 percent saying they believe that investing in cybersecurity generates an overall net loss for the business. Unfortunately, budget constraints are affecting the adoption of new technologies, such as AI, among SMEs.
52% said the cost of AI-based solutions was the biggest obstacle to adoption. In an increasingly complex threat landscape, with enterprise hackers targeting companies of this type, it appears that the misallocation of security budgets within SMBs is leaving their businesses at risk.
The research showed that SMBs are confident that AI is the future of cybersecurity solutions:
Sixty-nine percent of SMBs are looking to implement AI security solutions in the next five years, and 44 percent of SMBs plan to invest in AI/ML defense for the foreseeable future.
Seventy-six percent of respondents agreed that AI has the ability to improve the efficiency of their daily jobs
Eighty-one percent said AI will be able to improve their organizations' security posture
However, the uptake of AI solutions in SMEs has been slower than in enterprises, with an adoption rate of 4 percent. Aside from cost being a barrier to adoption, the results also indicate a hesitation around the hype of AI commercialization as a barrier (24 percent), and 36 percent of practitioners have hesitated to adopt it simply on the basis that they haven't used AI before.
Source: Senseon.
