Trend Micro study reveals security threats increasing in SMBs

The findings, especially disquieting for resource-strapped organizations in the Middle East with little or no IT support, underscore the need to raise the priority of security measures and ensure automated multi-threat protection from new and emerging threats.

Organizations lacking IT departments are clearly experiencing growing encounters with security threats - from spam to spyware to phishing. For respondents from small and medium businesses (SMBs) that have IT support, 37 percent they had contacted IT about a security concern or breach within the past three months.

"In the Middle East, where SMBs make up the large share of the business community, the findings are particularly relevant," commented Justin Doo, Trend Micro's managing director for Middle East and Africa. "Furthermore, given that Trend Micro has just realigned its partner programme in the Middle East, partly to provide further support our growing number of SMB customers, this report is also very timely."

"Large enterprises have long been aware of the need for a robust, comprehensive and secure IT infrastructure, and now their smaller counterparts are catching up. Trend Micro predicts massive demand from the SMB sector over the next five years," continued Doo.

The findings also reveal that almost 50 percent of computer users in small and medium businesses said they had noticed growing incidents of spam in the past three months, while 57 percent of respondents believed that phishing attacks - often launched via spam - had increased within the same timeframe.

These findings spotlight the challenge smaller organizations in the Middle East face in scaling IT resources to provide technical advice, conduct system scans, clean machines manually, deploy patches and security policies, and educate staff in order to enable a secure working environment.

"Smaller businesses face a dilemma," said Steve Quane, general manager of Trend Micro's small and medium business operations. "Encounters with security threats are rising faster in smaller organizations, but these same organizations are restricted by time, cost, and available resources."

"Whether they have an IT organization or not, these businesses need solutions that make their lives easier, where security protection and threat prevention can be automated. Assessing the efficiency and cost of ownership of current security measures - measures that should protect all layers of a network against unpredictable threats - will help businesses to stay a step ahead of malicious attacks," concluded Quane.

Trend Micro serves the SMB market with a portfolio of products specifically designed for small and medium businesses that typically operate with limited IT support.

Through the introduction of its new Client Server Suite for SMB, Client Server Messaging Suite for SMB, InterScanVirusWall for SMB, and NeatSuite for SMB, Trend Micro addresses the specific needs of SMB customers, for simplified management of desktop, server, gateway and Microsoft Exchange mail security.

These "out of box" products are designed for easy installation and configuration, and provide robust functionality with a single interface to help reduce the costs of installing, learning, and maintaining a secure business.