SMEs to accept tradeoffs for stronger scam protection, survey reveals
Half of all SMEs would be willing to accept slower payment processing for greater protection from scams, NAB research shows.
SMEs are increasingly prepared to sacrifice the time it takes to process payments in exchange for stronger protection from scammers, a recent NAB Consumer & Business Insights has revealed.
Support for more checks and balances also has solid support from businesses, with SMEs on average scoring 6.7 points out of 10, with 10 being completely support.
Support was highest in Tasmania at 7.6 points. In other states it ranged from 6.9 pts in SA to 6.4 pts in QLD.
The survey indicated that support ranged widely across different industries with support the highest in the Finance and Insurance sector at 7.9 points followed by Retail.
Support ranged more widely by industry. It was highest in the Finance & Insurance sector (7.9 pts), followed by Retail.
NAB said the major banks wanted to slow the speed of some banking activity including online payments to ensure that customers could be kept from the rising criminal activity targeting them.
Consumers were also asked about their willingness to experience slower payments processing if it meant that they were better protected from scammers.
Four in ten consumers said there were ‘extremely willing’ to do so.
Willingness to sacrifice convenience for security rated a little higher in rural areas (7.0 pts) than in capital and regional cities (6.9%), with more consumers in rural areas (47%) “extremely” prepared to experience slower payment processing times than in regional and capital cities (43%).
Less convenience for more security against scammers increased with age for both genders. Women scored higher in all age groups except the 50-64 group where the gap was also widest (men 7.7 points; women 7.2 points).
The number of people who scored “high” increased significantly with age from around 1 in 4 in 18-29 age groups to around 2 in 3 in over 65 age groups.
Training conducted on cybersecurity
The research also revealed that only 15 per cent of SMEs overall conduct extensive training around scams and other cybersecurity risks, and 4 in 10 not much training at all.
“By industry, training was highest in the Finance & Insurance sector (6.6 pts), with over 4 in 10 firms conducting extensive training. Accommodation & Hospitality firms were least likely to have conducted scams training (2.0 pts), with only 1 in 20 firms conducting extensive training,” the insights report stated.
“At the other extreme, over 1 in 2 firms in Construction and Transport & Storage did not conduct much training at all.”
The three most widely used sources for information and training about scams and cybersecurity risks was industry associations, bank websites, external consultations and experts, according to the research.
“Around 1 in 3 rely on government websites, 1 in 4 social media and internal IT consultants and experts, and 1 in 5 their telecommunications provider. Around 1 in 20 don’t get any information or training at all,” the survey said.
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