Small Business Cybersecurity Statistics 2025
When a major corporation falls victim to a cyber attack, it makes headlines. But what about the local accounting firm down the street? Or the family-owned retail shop in your neighborhood? In the limelight stolen by these high-profile breaches lies a disturbing reality: Cyber attacks on small businesses are increasing. Small businesses are getting targeted by cybercriminals, and are paying a heavy price for it.
Why? Because while enterprise organizations solidify their digital presence with million-dollar security budgets, small businesses just don’t have that kind of funds to spend on. They are working desperately to make their ends meet, mostly with minimum protection and maximum vulnerability. In 2025, this disparity has created the perfect storm—with devastating consequences for small business owners who believe they’re “too small to be targeted.”
Worse, small businesses barely have cyber insurance to compensate for some or all of the damages caused by a cyberattack.
The statistics paint a horrifying story. Let’s examine the numbers behind this growing crisis and why every small business owner needs to pay attention now.
The State of Small Business Cybersecurity in 2025
Attack Frequency and Success Rates
1. 46% of small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees suffered with a cyberattack.
2. Almost 1 out of 5 small businesses that suffered an attack (18%) filed for bankruptcy as per Mastercard survey of 5,000 small businesses.
3. Following an attack, 80% of businesses had to invest on rebuilding trust with their clients, suppliers and customers.
4. Globally, more than 25% small businesses say they incurred more than one cyberattack in one year.
5. Small businesses now face an average of 1,200+ attacks per day
6. 43% of all cyber attacks now specifically target small businesses
7. The average time to detect a breach in small businesses: 197 days
8. 80% of small businesses have an incident response plan, but only 28% out of it are satisfied about it (Mastercard survey)
9. Compared to 94% of the large enterprises and businesses, only 56% of small businesses provide adequate cybertraining to their employees.
Financial Impact – The Costs of Cyber Attacks and Data Breaches on Small Business
Getting hit with a cyberattack is just the beginning. Next comes cleanup costs in the form of hiring cybersecurity experts, restoring data, and cleaning the network of malicious files and viruses. This alone can put a big dent on a small businesses’ financials. Here are some alarming stats on the devastating financial impacts:
10. 83% of small businesses are JUST NOT prepared for a cyberattack.
11. The average cost of a data breach for small businesses reached $149,000 in 2025.
12. 60% of small businesses close within 6 months of a major cyber attack.
13. Ransomware payments from small businesses averaged $36,295 per incident.
14. Small businesses spent an average of $8,700 on cybersecurity in 2025—still only 1/17th of what is recommended by industry experts
15. Post-breach recovery costs typically run 3-5x the cost of prevention measures.
16. 55% of people in the U.S. may not be interested in working with the businesses affected from cybersecurity attack.
Types of Attacks Targeting Small Businesses
17. Phishing attacks: 71% of small businesses reported these as their most common threat and 30% consider these to be the biggest cyber threats.
18. Ransomware: 52% increase in ransomware attacks specifically targeting businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
19. Business Email Compromise (BEC): Responsible for $55 billion in losses to small businesses over the last decade.
20. Supply chain attacks: 39% of small businesses experienced a breach through a third-party vendor.
21. Cloud security incidents: 47% of small businesses using cloud services experienced a security incident.
Why Small Businesses Are Increasingly Targeted By Cyber Attacks?
Small businesses present an attractive target for cybercriminals for several key reasons:
22. Limited security resources: 76% of small businesses admit they lack sufficient cybersecurity personnel
23. Outdated technology: 59% operate with outdated or unpatched software systems
24. Valuable data access: Many serve as vendors to larger organizations, providing a backdoor to bigger targets
25. Less security training: 62% of small business employees received no security awareness training in 2025
26. False sense of security: 66% of small business owners believe they’re unlikely to be targeted
Industry-Specific Vulnerabilities
27. Did you know that global damages as a result of cyberattacks are expected to reach $10.5 trillion by the end of 2025, and $15.63 trillion by 2029? This is an increase of nearly 50%
Different small business sectors face varying levels of risk. The following table highlights the impacts and the most common attack vendors:
| Industry | Attack Rate (%) | Average Breach Cost ($) | Most Common Attack Vector |
| Healthcare | 71% | $217,000 | Ransomware |
| Financial Services | 68% | $202,500 | Business Email Compromise |
| Retail | 63% | $138,000 | Point-of-Sale Malware |
| Professional Services | 58% | $159,000 | Phishing |
| Manufacturing | 53% | $142,000 | Supply Chain Attacks |
| Construction | 46% | $129,000 | Invoice Fraud |
| Hospitality | 67% | $134,000 | Credit Card Skimming |
According to the table, healthcare and financial services are the two most vulnerable sectors with the highest average breach cost per attack, making them highly profitable for cybercriminals to target. Imagine life-saving medical equipment not working because it has been hacked by the hackers and the hospitals have to do anything at that time to get it back up and running to save patient lives.
That’s how ruthless and cruel these cybercriminals really are.
Regional Attack Patterns
Small businesses in certain regions have become particularly attractive targets:
28. Urban small businesses face 31% more attacks than rural counterparts
29. Businesses in technology hubs experience 47% more sophisticated attack attempts
30. Regional variations reveal higher attack rates in:
- Western Europe (62%)
- Southeast Asia (59%)
- Australia/New Zealand (57%)
Cybersecurity Resource Allocation
Understanding how small businesses allocate their limited security resources provides insight into vulnerabilities:
31. 42% spend primarily on antivirus software
32. 29% invest in firewall technology
33. Only 17% use advanced threat detection systems
34. Just 14% employ regular security assessments or penetration testing
35. A mere 9% allocate budget for employee security training
Small Business Cyber Security Preparedness
The readiness gap continues to widen. The following statistics are eye-openers for anyone:
36. Only 31% of small businesses have implemented multi-factor authentication
37. 43% have no data backup policy
38. 67% lack a written cybersecurity policy
39. 82% have never conducted a security risk assessment
40. 91% of small businesses don’t carry cyber insurance coverage adequate for their risk level
Recommendations for Small Business Cyber Attack Protection
Based on the 2025 threat landscape, security experts recommend these essential protective measures:
- Implement multi-factor authentication across all business systems and provide limited access to employees.
- Conduct regular employee security awareness training. Businesses that invest in regular trainings have better chances of remaining protected and safe.
- Deploy endpoint protection on all devices and keep multiple copies of your backup.
- Establish and test a data backup strategy to mimic the actual incident and determine your level of readiness.
- Develop an incident response plan and have it reviewed by the experts.
- Consider managed security services to supplement internal capabilities because the upfront costs of hiring one are much lower than paying for a ransom after getting hacked.
- Evaluate cyber insurance options appropriate for your risk profile
Small Businesses, It’s A Wake-Up Call!
Small businesses, you aren’t small for ruthless cybercriminals. With an unprecedented level of cyber risk in 2025, it is time you rope in qualified cybersecurity experts to avoid the hefty costs associated with data breaches and tarnished PR.
The question is no longer if a small business will be targeted, but when—and how prepared they’ll be when it happens.
The good news?
Even with limited resources, you can significantly reduce your risks by implementing basic security practices. The investments made today in cybersecurity awareness, planning, and protection could mean the difference between recovery and closure tomorrow.
As a small business owner, it is time to think rationally, invest in employee-training, get adequate cyber insurance and have an incident response plan in place by qualified experts. While no amount of preparedness can 100% shield you from attacks, it can at least reduce the probability and the cost of damages.
According to industry research, approximately 43% of cyber attacks now specifically target small businesses. Small businesses often have valuable data but fewer security resources than larger enterprises, making them a lucrative target for criminals.
Approximately $149,000 in 2025 is the cost that small businesses have to bear recovering from a cyberattack. This figure includes direct costs like investigation, remediation, and notification expenses, as well as indirect costs such as business disruption, lost customers, and reputational damage
The average time to detect a breach in small businesses has reached 197 days in 2025. In other words, by the time businesses know what happened, it is already too late as the damage has been done. The lengthy detection time period is due to limited monitoring capabilities and security expertise within small businesses, highlighting the need for improved threat detection solutions.
Only about 9% of small businesses have cyber insurance. Many small business owners believe that they are too small to be targeted, and hence either completely ignore insurance coverage or outright deny that they will ever get attacked.
Approximately 60% of small businesses close within 6 months of experiencing a major cyber attack. Small businesses typically lack the financial reserves and recovery capabilities of larger enterprises, making them highly vulnerable to even a small attack.
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