CIO

Threat landscapes targets SMBs and enterprises alike: Sophos

Security vendor finds SMBs are more includes to automated security solution due to their smaller size and resources

SMBs may have different business models to enterprises but Sophos sees the online threat landscape as the same for both.

Product marketing vice-president, Marty Ward, said both types of businesses share the same challenges of a distributed workforce, with people working from home and remote offices.

“SMBs have traditionally been more challenged by device proliferation, as it is more common than in enterprises,” he said.

SMBs do not have the same budgets as enterprises, so employees at these smaller organisations have a longer history of using their own phones and devices at work.

To top this off, SMB also have to contend with reduced access to expertise, resources and budgets.

For these reasons, Ward said SMBs are stretched thin when it comes to handling their online security.

“They would prefer if someone, whether it is a reseller or consultant, could handle security for them,” he said.

“Otherwise the risk is to great and too many things to handle being a small business.”

Potential in the Cloud

Due to the above pressures, Ward said SMBs are looking to the Cloud as a viable delivery model for security.

“They are looking for something that is easy, something that can hopefully manage itself,” he said.

That is an approach Sophos has gone with its own Cloud solution.

“Not only can you deploy Cloud across Windows, Mac and mobile from one product, but it automatically remediate viruses or any malware that comes into the system,” Ward said.

Enterprises are used to having staff of ten to 20 people, and Ward said they typically have access to a “great and huge security dashboards.”

If something is going wrong, they are able to use the information and devise the best way to respond to the incident.

“SMBs don’t have that luxury, so we will automatically remediate and fix issues without them needing to be involved,” Ward said.

Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.