Small business pedalling hard, with little time for cybersecurity

Mark Eggleton

Sep 26, 2022 – 10.00am

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As COVID-19 hit, the nation’s small businesses saw a huge uplift in online sales, with more than 70 per cent reporting that new forms of digital payments were fundamental to their growth, according to Visa’s Back to Business Global Study 2022 Small Business Outlook.

70 per cent of SMEs say new forms of digital payments are fundamental to their growth. iStock

The study found 90 per cent of small businesses with an online presence noted that their survival through the pandemic was due to increased efforts to trade via e-commerce.

Yet, while more Australians are heading online and ditching main street, the small business sector still has a way to catch-up, according to Alexi Boyd, the chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA).

“Small business is on a steep learning curve and the one piece missing when it comes to technology in the sector is cybersecurity,” Boyd said.

COVID-19 had underlined how adaptable and nimble the Australian small business sector could be when faced with an existential threat as they were able to pivot to having a presence in both the real and online worlds.

“There was a real willingness to implement change and embrace digital solutions, but they weren’t quick at being careful around making sure they weren’t increasing their cyber risks at the same time.“

Ideally, COSBOA believes advances in technology and the headlong charge into online commerce should have been in lockstep with enhanced cybersecurity, but that didn’t happen.

Indeed, 80 per cent of Australian respondents to global security firm Sophos’ recent report on the State of Ransomware in Australia 2022 said their organisations were hit by ransomware in the last year, a sharp increase from the 45 per cent that reported an attack in 2020.

By comparison, globally, 66 per cent of respondents experienced a ransomware attack in 2021.

With this in mind, COSBOA suggests the next iteration of government policy around cybersecurity should advance around the understanding and mitigation of risk that comes with moving to a digital world.

And while the Australian Cyber Security Centre had been excellent in formulating its “Essential Eight” mitigation strategies as a baseline for small business, Boyd says there is little engagement from the sector.

The problem is that businesses are more worried simply about keeping their doors open, as well as the burden of debt and massive worker shortages.

“This means small business owners must spend an increasing amount of time in their business rather than on it,” Boyd says.

“The last thing they’re doing is worrying about themselves and what’s happening with cybersecurity.“