Small Businesses Leave Themselves Exposed to Cyber Threats

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Nov 07, 2013, 01:05 ET

ABINGDON, England, November 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Smaller firms fail to recognise the risk posed by cyber threats and online fraud^[1], despite the fact latest figures from the Federation of Small Businesses suggest cybercrime is costing them more than £785 million a year. This relaxed attitude to cyber threats puts the future of these businesses in danger as further research from Gartner reveals that 50 per cent of businesses that suffer disruption from data loss can go out of business within two years.

"It's shocking that small businesses are so exposed when they could protect themselves for far less than they stand to lose," comments David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. "The trouble is, traditionally, small businesses are either using consumer products that don't quite make the cut when it comes to more sophisticated targeted attacks or stripped-down versions of enterprise-level products that are cumbersome to manage and force businesses to pay for security features they will never use."

To combat this, Kaspersky Lab has announced a new version of Kaspersky Small Office Security, the company's security solution built specifically for businesses with fewer than 25 employees. This solution includes new features that help small businesses stay ahead of modern security challenges, and includes Kaspersky Lab's latest anti-malware technologies in an easy-to-use product that doesn't require business owners to be IT experts. It is simple to install and manage, and offers incredible value in both purchase costs and administration time. This simplicity allows business owners to equip themselves with world-class protection without taking their focus away from running their companies.

Kaspersky Small Office Security includes several brand new features, and a host of technology upgrades and improvements. These include the following:

Kaspersky's Safe Money, which protects businesses when online banking.
Support for Android tablets and smartphones, equipping these devices with an array of anti-malware, web browsing protection, and privacy controls.
Automatic Exploit Prevention, which prevents cybercriminals from using emerging vulnerabilities in legitimate software to launch malware attacks.
Password Manager to ensure employees follow best practice when it comes to secure log-in.
Online Backup, which automatically saves businesses' critical data securely in the cloud or to a local hard drive or server.

1. 2013: An expanding network of risk and opportunity: How UK SMEs are under-estimating the growing complexity of technology, EIU,

The most compelling feature of Kaspersky Small Office Security is its ease of use, which makes advanced protection technologies accessible and straightforward for small business owners. By de-mystifying features like data encryption and web policy controls through wizard-driven menus and one-click options, Kaspersky Small Office Security makes the benefits of web usage policies, data encryption, and central management available to businesses of all sizes.

Kaspersky Lab's Chief Technology Officer, Nikolay Grebennikov commented: "Kaspersky Small Office Security is one of our company's best examples of combining the IT security industry's best protection technologies into a form that anyone with even modest computer knowledge can easily understand. Shortening the learning curve has always been a priority for our small business products, and the latest version of Kaspersky Small Office Security ensures business owners can purchase the product on their lunch break, and have it fully installed across their business by end of day."

For more details, visit http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/small_office_security.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is the world's largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world's top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 15-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at http://www.kaspersky.co.uk.

* The company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2011. The rating was published in the IDC report "Worldwide Endpoint Security 2012-2016 Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares (IDC #235930, July 2012). The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2011.

Notes to editor

Kaspersky Small Office Security supports up to 25 user licenses per business, which includes PCs (Windows XP through Windows 8), file servers, and Android smartphones and tablets. Each user license includes protection of 1 PC and 1 mobile device, so businesses that purchase protection for 10 employees can protect 10 PCs and 10 mobile devices. Kaspersky Small Office Security also supports popular Windows file servers, including Windows Server 2008 R2; Small Business Server 2011 Essentials/Standard; and Windows Server 2012 Foundation/Essentials/Standard. Kaspersky Lab will include support for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 later in Q4 2013.

Kaspersky Small Office Security is available for purchase at computer retailers and the Kaspersky Lab e-store. Kaspersky Small Office Security can also be purchased through local authorized Kaspersky Lab resellers, who can provide hands-on assistance with installation and configuration, as well as future support.

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Editorial contact:

Berkeley PR
Jenny Jones
[email protected]
Telephone: +44(0)118-909-0909
1650 Arlington Business Park
RG7 4SA, Reading

Kaspersky Lab UK
Ruth Knowles
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Telephone: +44(0)7590-440-433
Milton Business Park
OX14 4RY, Oxford

SOURCE Kaspersky Lab