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The Simply Smarter Blog

The Simply Smarter Blog

Is AI Making Cyberattacks Worse for Small Businesses?

Danielle Cerny /

If you’ve been thinking, “Cybersecurity? That’s for the big guys, not me,” it’s time for a reality check. In 2025, small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are discovering the hard way that cybercriminals don’t care about company size — especially when AI makes their jobs way easier. According to the latest whitepaper by Vanson Bourne Research and Connectwise, The State of SMB Cybersecurity: Racing Against AI-Driven Cyberthreats, AI is supercharging cyberattacks, and many SMBs are dangerously underprepared.

Survey Finds that Outsourcing IT Security Work Can Help Prevent Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks can leave small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) exposed and vulnerable to going out of business. To better understand industry concerns on this topic, Sharp commissioned a cybersecurity study of 250 North American SMBs with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). The results found that many SMBs are struggling to protect themselves. Almost half of all respondents said that their business had been the victim of multiple security incidents (averaging three) in the last year. While some of these incidents can be attributed to human error, many took place because the organization had a smaller IT team. In fact, 85% of SMBs surveyed said they have, at most, one dedicated security professional on their team.

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