Cybersecurity Risk Assessment for Small and Mid-Size Businesses
Small and mid-size businesses face the same threats as large enterprises but with fewer resources to address them. The good news is that a focused, risk-based approach can deliver strong protection without enterprise-scale budgets.
SMB Threat Reality
According to Hiscox's 2025 Cyber Readiness Report, 59% of organisations experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months, and smaller organisations are increasingly targeted. Attackers know that SMBs typically have weaker defences and are more likely to pay ransoms.
A Practical Risk Assessment Framework
- Identify your crown jewels — what data and systems would cause the most damage if compromised? Customer PII, financial records, and intellectual property are typical priorities.
- List realistic threats — for most SMBs, phishing, ransomware, and business email compromise represent 80% of the risk. Focus there first.
- Estimate financial impact — use industry benchmarks scaled to your revenue. A $25M company faces proportionally smaller but still significant breach costs.
- Prioritise by ROI — implement the controls that deliver the most risk reduction per dollar: MFA, backups, email security, and training.
The Essential Stack for SMBs
For organisations under $50M in revenue, five controls cover the majority of risk: MFA across all accounts, endpoint detection and response, immutable backups with tested recovery, security awareness training, and an email security gateway. This essential stack typically costs under $100K annually and addresses the highest-probability threats.