A recent blog by my AT&T colleague, Stacey Marks, president, AT&T National Business & Channels, caught my eye. At once, she recognized the incredible efforts of our small and medium-sized business (SMBs) customers who “pivoted to virtual or physical/virtual hybrid workplaces and transitioned their physical customer and employee interactions to a digital model,” during the Pandemic of 2020 but also expressed concern about a casual cybersecurity attitude.

“The reasons for cybersecurity vulnerabilities among SMBs typically boil down to a lack of understanding of the gravity of the threat, a lack of financial or technology professional resources, and inertia when it comes to taking proactive steps to shore up their cyber defenses.” Stacy wrote. “I recommend to all of our SMB customers that they consider a professional cybersecurity assessment. Our cybersecurity experts can quickly help identify where systems are vulnerable and make practical recommendations to help them use their resources most effectively. Usually, there are both technology and human behavioral challenges that need to be addressed.”

While some cyberattacks garner headlines, the impact on small and medium-sized business can be no less frightening.

Stacey noted that, “According to a March 4, 2021 report in Security Magazine, SMBs are the number one target for cybersecurity breaches and 60 percent of those whose systems are compromised close up shop permanently within a year of the attack.”

AT&T cybersecurity professionals can help ensure our customers’ systems have the latest protective technologies, are using up-to-date software and hardware, and are compliant with industry-recognized standards. System software patching, application updates, and system access controls, administration and configuration are all areas that cybersecurity professionals typically assess.

Our cybersecurity professionals can help SMBs protect their networks from end-to-end which includes the ingress and egress of data passing to and from the internet and their businesses’ connected devices. And that’s just the starting point.

AT&T just announced an expanded the AT&T USM Anywhere platform to offer an advisory service for new and existing customers. Through the new service, AT&T USM Anywhere Advisors provide reactive support to AT&T USM Anywhere customers to help with day-to-day operations and streamline incident response efforts.