SMEs: Challenges and Opportunities
SMEs are uniquely vulnerable to cyber attacks. This is because they often don’t have in-house cybersecurity experts; meaning they have a harder time understanding the dangers of cyber attacks and how best to guard against them. In fact, even SMEs who do have cyber insurance may be underinsured, and without experts to point them out, these weaknesses can fly under the radar with disastrous consequences.
One of the most significant threats a cyber attack poses is damage to reputation. In Hiscox’s 2024 Cyber Readiness report, 47% of businesses who had experienced a successful cyber attack in the year prior reported having greater challenges with finding new customers, and 43% reported that they had lost customers. Reputation damage is life and death for an SME, because not only are they less likely to have expansive cyber insurance, but they also have lesser access to legal advice. The notion that SMEs shouldn’t be concerned with cyber attacks because cybercriminals are more concerned with bigger businesses is simply false. As Alana Huir, Head of Cyber at Hiscox UK, says “Hackers are holding reputations to ransom – and no business is too small to be at risk.”
Knowing the unique threats that cybercriminals pose to SMEs, how do we help? As always, the most powerful tool is knowledge. At CyQuant, we understand that not everyone has access to IT experts. Our cyber risk quantification tool allows businesses to see exactly where their vulnerabilities are. This allows us to make recommendations based on their weaknesses, improving their quality of protection. Knowing their vulnerabilities also allows us to match them with an insurance plan that is tailor made to their needs. While absolute security is not possible, our plan allows SMEs to upgrade their defenses as much as possible, while insuring what can’t be accounted for. This makes CyQuant a one stop shop for SMEs to learn about cybersecurity, assess their weaknesses, improve what can be improved, and insure the rest.
Citations
1. Lamb, Eddie. “Cyber Readiness Report 2024.” Hiscoxgroup.Com, Hiscox , www.hiscox.co.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2024-10/HSX245 – 2024 CRR Final EN.pdf. Accessed 10 July 2025.