Sharp comes to this conclusion after surveying 570 companies. Despite inflation, Belgian SMEs are investing (more) in cybersecurity, but are not always making the right investment decisions.

Sharp surveyed managers from 6,000 European SMEs about their security strategy, including 570 Belgian SMEs. The study shows that there are major concerns about cyber threats and their impact on the business. 37 percent of business leaders fear that any type of security breach could have fatal consequences for their brand. Damage to reputation (40%) and loss of income (34%) are also consequences that must be avoided at all costs.

In general, concerns are even greater than they were a year ago. The types of cyberattacks SMBs typically struggle with appear in almost every trending cybersecurity report. Phishing is mentioned most frequently at 35 percent, followed by data loss (31%), password attacks (31%), viruses and malware (29%) and security problems in the cloud (26).

Investments miss their target

To protect themselves from the above-mentioned cyberattacks, Belgian SMEs are increasing their IT budgets. 47 percent of SMEs invested more in IT despite inflation. But these investments do not give medium-sized business leaders a feeling of security: two out of three business leaders have the feeling that their company is not sufficiently prepared for the risks. Sharp said that number is likely still low because safety concerns lag behind actual incidents.

Sharp reiterates the conclusion of previous research that while SMEs invest in IT, they do not always know where to invest. With this study, the company wants to raise awareness that making the right investments is more important than how much budget you spend on IT. Peter Hoorn, Managing Director of Sharp Benelux, explains:

“For example, we see that only 38 percent of SMBs use a firewall, a strong password policy or a VPN connection, which are the basis for good data security.” Companies invest in IT, but do not always know what is a priority. Knowledge, expertise and advice play a crucial role in creating a truly secure corporate IT environment. Due to the absence of these elements, companies may mistakenly believe that they are safe or not know what they can do to change the situation.”

SMEs believe they are more secure than they actually are due to a lack of data security knowledge and expertise within the organization.

Peter Hoorn, Managing Director Sharp Benelux