The attack surface
Small businesses are increasingly the primary target — large enterprises have invested heavily in security, leaving SMBs as the soft underbelly. Verizon DBIR shows 43% of breaches involved a small business victim. Phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) account for nearly three-quarters of attacks.
The economic damage
Median cost of a breach for SMBs is $120k, but the long-tail is brutal: 60% of small businesses hit by a major breach close within 6 months. Cyber insurance helps — and is now functionally required for federal contractors.
Where defense spending is going
- Endpoint protection (Sentinel One, CrowdStrike, Defender for Business)
- Email security (Proofpoint, Mimecast, Microsoft 365 add-ons)
- Multi-factor authentication (Duo, Microsoft Authenticator)
- Backup + recovery (Datto, Carbonite, Rewind)
- Cyber insurance ($1k-15k/year for typical SMB)