SME community in the UK is an important customer segment for the operator, and for many businesses with 250 employees or fewer, the pandemic is proving to be a threat to their very survival. In its latest move, Vodafone has called on the UK government to help SMEs cope better with the rising threat of cyberattacks in an increasingly digital working environment. 1.3 million out of a total of almost 6 million SMEs in the UK would collapse if they fell victim to a cyberattack. Successful cyberattack has an average cost of £3,230. Around 23% of SMEs polled for the report said that they could not survive a loss of this scale. A further 16%, the equivalent of almost 1 million companies.
Almost a third of the SMEs polled for this report said that they had seen an increase in such attacks since the start of the March 2020 lockdown. Recent figures from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have revealed that more than a quarter of all cyber incidents detected in the past year involved criminals and hostile states exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, with ransomware often embedded in what appeared to be important official communications from the government about COVID-19. One of the main problems for SMEs is that they often lack the awareness, the skills and the security measures to fend off these attacks. Vodafone is therefore calling for new cybersecurity measures to help small businesses, including a reduced 5% value-added tax (VAT) rate on cybersecurity products and additional funding for the NCSC to expand a dedicated unit for cybersecurity for business.