32% of North American SMBs have been hit by cybercrime numerous times

32% of small and medium businesses in the United States and Canada have been attacked more than four times by cybercriminals in the last three years, MCAfee said. 26% of those attacked took at least a week to recover, a devastating length of time to be offline for small businesses who conduct business and sales via the Web. Recovery time in Canada was even greater, with a third (36%) taking a week or more to fully restore their systems. 44% think cybercrime is only an issue for larger organizations and believe it does not affect them. 52% of businesses believe that because they are not well-known so cybercriminals will not specifically target them. Almost half (45%) do not think they are a ‘valuable target’ for cybercriminals. 46% do not think they can be a source of profit for cybercriminals. SMBs may not be as safe from security attacks as they think. 88% of respondents believed they were ‘adequately protected,’ yet 43% of them admitted that they simply accept the default settings on their IT equipment, settings which are often not in line with their specific business needs.