Why do SMBs Need a Cybersecurity Marketplace?

Cybersecurity has become increasingly vital for SMBs. In this article, we understand how a cybersecurity marketplace can create value for all stakeholders in the ecosystem, including buyers and sellers.

Why do SMBs Need a Cybersecurity Marketplace?
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Cybersecurity Marketplaces
SMB Cybersecurity
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Summary: Cybersecurity has become increasingly vital for SMBs. In this article, we understand how a cybersecurity marketplace can create value for all stakeholders in the ecosystem, including buyers and sellers.

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With growing cyberattacks, cybersecurity has become extremely crucial, especially for SMBs. While large companies have been usual victims historically, hackers are now increasingly targeting small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). Although SMBs are increasingly cognizant of the importance of cybersecurity, executing it often becomes difficult.
 
Even before the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic and the spike in cybersecurity attacks, a 2019 Keeper Security/ Ponemon Institute study,highlighted how there was a 20% increase in attacks since 2016. Besides, 66% SMBs reported experiencing a cyberattack during 2018–19 and 45% SMBs said their organization’s security posture was ineffective at mitigating attacks. The most common attacks on SMBs in the last year include phishing / social engineering (57%), compromised/stolen devices (33%) and credential theft (30%).
COVID 19 pandemic has aggravated further the state of SMB cybersecurity, with remote work and increased cyberattacks significantly reducing the effectiveness of organizations’ security posture. There was a significant decline from 71% of organizations who believed they were effective at mitigating risks before the pandemic, to only 44% during the pandemic.
This indicates that heightened cybersecurity product interest and increased SMB spending are here to stay and grow irrespective of the pandemic spike.

Why are SMBs Focusing on Cybersecurity?

One bad breach or a major disruption can be fatal for many small businesses with a recent report estimating that 60 per cent of small companies close within 6 months of being hacked. This quote from Cyentia Institute’s Information Risk Insights Study highlights the impact of a cybersecurity incident on an SMB: “A $100B enterprise that experiences a typical cyber event ($292K) should expect a cost that represents 0.000003% of annual revenues. A mom and pop shop that brings in $100K per year, on the other hand, will likely lose one-quarter of their earnings ($24K) or more”.
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Is the SMB Cybersecurity market attractive?

The global cybersecurity market is currently estimated to have a size of $ 143 Bn and has been growing at a CAGR of 10.7% over the last 5 years. SMBs constitute approx. 43% of the pie today and is forecasted to grow at 10% CAGR between 2020–2025. SMBs will increasingly spend more resources on cybersecurity risk assessment, investment planning and technology expenditure with forecasts indicating increased procurement of cybersecurity-related products and services.

Issues with addressing the SMB Cybersecurity Market Opportunity

While SMB cybersecurity market opportunity is on a quick rise, traditional buying practices are exposing market inefficiencies. Some of the major pain points faced by the SMBs include:
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Similarly, cybersecurity product vendors, service and solution providers face several pain points, including:
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Marketplace As a Solution

Marketplaces have been a major driving force in eliminating market inefficiencies faced through interventions such as:
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For a cybersecurity seller, a Marketplace platform offers transparency, trust, visibility, knowledge, tools and analytics.
For a cybersecurity buyer, a Marketplace platform offers curated sellers and offerings with price and terms transparency. Beyond optimizing buying process, it can also offer key tools to perform assessments, matching, tracking and deployment.
A few examples of how small, yet high potential marketplaces have addressed similar market lacunae and caused disruption in adjacent domains are:
  1. AdQuick, allows buyers to book out-of-home (OOH) advertising. It provides advertisers with accurate attribution analytics, enabling them to measure the effectiveness of an outdoor campaign which is very much like how the ROI of online campaigns is measured.
  1. Rigup, Faire, and Ankorstore grant 30 to 90 days of credit to eligible buyers while also allowing their suppliers to get paid right after the order is purchased. These marketplaces take on the credit risk of a buyer by not paying during the time of exchange for greater supplier loyalty.
 

Conclusion

Marketplaces have tremendously helped SMBs in adjacent domains by improving efficiencies and simplifying buying. Cybersecurity marketplace platforms (like Ofofo) look to drive similar efficiencies and improved experiences by bringing domain awareness, ease of consumption and confident buying to the SMB cybersecurity market.

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Written by

Mohan Gandhi Ponnaganti
Mohan Gandhi Ponnaganti

Co-founder and CEO, Ofofo.io

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