Free risk assessment for SMBs

Symantec has unveiled a free tool to help small and mid-sized businesses in New Zealand understand the risks that can damage their business.

Security risks including viruses or hacker attacks, lost or stolen equipment, accidental deletion and natural disasters, can put information at risk and may lead to serious damage to profitability.

The Symantec Risk Assessment Tool uses an online questionnaire to assess security risks, assign a risk rating and then provide recommendations to help you improve protection.

Backing up its reasoning for SMBs to take this seriously, Symantec unleashed some fear-educing trivia from a recent SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey.

The average cost of downtime is $15,000 in New Zealand per incident. This covers productivity, lost sales and replacement equipment.

Incidents result in downtime of at least eight hours for 40% of all businesses.

In the last 12 months, New Zealand and Australian businesses have experienced power outages (79%); natural disasters, such as fire, flood and storm (70%); a virus or hacker attack (67%); employees accidentally deleting information (65%); and computer system failure (63%).

30% of businesses do not have a plan to deal with these disasters.

Steve Martin, Director, Small and Mid-Sized Businesses, Pacific region, Symantec, explained, “Small businesses today operate in a challenging environment and every business, regardless of size, relies on credible information to operate effectively. By simply checking how well their information and their business are protected, business owners can save a lot of money and stress in the long run.”

You can find the Risk Assessment Tool here.