As security leaders converged in San Francisco for the annual RSA Conference, we sat down with our Chief Scientist Karel Obluk and Don MacLennan, Senior VP of Product Management, to get their take on the issues being addressed at the show.

Their verdict?

Here’s how Don put it: "We scoured the floor in search of solutions addressing the many security issues faced by the small business owner and we didn’t find a single one.”

 "Despite all the innovations, small business is being left behind,” was Karel’s view.

Given that 90 percent of the workforce in many nations are employed by small businesses, and given that the workforce itself is often the weakest link when it comes to attacks that prey on social engineering, it is somewhat astonishing that security professionals at RSA weren’t addressing the clear business opportunities that exist in small business security.

Karel again: "The solutions on the show floor are too sophisticated, fragmented and confusing for the small business owner. When you add up all these classes of technology, no small business can afford them.”

So what are small business owners to do?

Don says there are things that SMBs can do. "Given all the ways a hacker can penetrate a small business, the biggest threat for small business owners is to do nothing.

"And it doesn’t require a lot in terms of money or products—just education, some basic solutions, and sheer common sense.”

To be sure, today’s small businesses depend on technologies that give them the flexibility and power they need to compete and serve their customers. Many small businesses have remote contractors and field staff in virtual offices supported by mobile devices, Wi-Fi, Skype, Google Docs and a myriad of other gadgets and services that enable business in the cloud.

Don: "It all adds up to an incredibly long list of things to worry about. Not least of which is protecting the data of your biggest customers.”

Karel added: "This is an area to be concerned about. As large organizations become better at protecting themselves, hackers will go after their less secured smaller vendors to get their hands on the big prize.”

And how does the small business owner go about protecting customers as well as their own businesses? Both AVG execs point to the workforce itself.

Karel: "A lot of the attacks we’re seeing today take advantage of the fact that people are online all the time. Attackers don’t need sophisticated technology to come after us. They use simple methods, which is why if there’s anything small business owners should be investing in, it’s educating users. Even if you’re able to invest in a lot of complex security solutions, all a hacker needs is for a worker to accept a rogue app on their Android to penetrate the network.”

Don: "Yes, it’s this problem of new devices accessing host systems in new ways. There is a lot of trust being put in the cloud with little control in terms of security.”

Should small businesses try to restrict their access points to the cloud to limit their exposure to attacks?

Karel advises against this: "Small businesses depend on the connectivity they get with mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. It’s better to move to the cloud, and then outsource to a cloud-based security expert who can help you identify and secure those endpoints where users are accessing the cloud.”

Don: "Education is key. Particularly as bigger organizations are better able to defend themselves, fraudsters will go after small businesses to gain access to the data of larger customers. They can sell this data for corporate espionage, or profit from it through blackmail. Not to mention hacking into Twitter or Facebook accounts and ruining the corporate reputations of small vendor and big-name customer alike.”

Where does one find information to help you protect your small business? Well AVG has a  Small Business Center, so that’s obviously a great place to start as it includes lots of guides, videos and case studies on how to protect your small business.

We have also produced a valuable infographic that shows five ways cyber criminals can attack your business. This is really useful information and something that would be great to print off and give to your staff as a reminder on how they can keep your small business safe.

If you have any information or stories then let us know, we’d love to hear from you. How have you been able to educate your employees to ensure your business and customers are protected? Have you ever suffered a damaging cyber security attack? How could this have been prevented? Let us know.

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