The European Commission published on Thursday 12 May the results of the latest “Flash Eurobarometer on the impact of cybercrime on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)”, which reveals that SMEs are most likely to be “very concerned” about online bank account hacking (32% of respondents) and phishing, account takeover or identity theft (31%) as well as viruses and spyware or malware (29%), says a statement.
In 2021, 28% of SMEs experienced at least one of the listed types of cybercrime. SMEs are also very likely not to have reported cybercrime incidents (44%).
The main topics covered by the survey are: the extent to which SME staff are aware of the risks of cybercrime, the level of concern about cybercrime, experiences with cybercrime in the last 12 months, and the preferred channels for reporting cybercrime by SMEs.
With regard to the knowledge of SME employees, the study reveals that, on average, 15% of respondents believe that their SME employees are ‘very well informed’ about the risks of cybercrime, and 41% believe that their employees are ‘fairly well informed’ about these risks.
About a third of respondents feel that their staff are ‘not well informed’ about the risks of cybercrime. At the national level, the proportion of respondents stating that their employees are either very well or fairly well informed about the risks of cybercrime is highest in Ireland (80%) and lowest in Romania (46%).
Concerns about different types of cybercrime also tend to be higher in Portugal and Spain, but lower in Denmark, Estonia and Sweden.
Link to the barometer: https://aeur.eu/f/1lg (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)