Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are ideal targets for attackers seeking financial gain. Attackers choose the SMB as they are perceived to be an easy target; its budget may be limited, resulting in a lack of security resources. However, an SMB has a lot to lose. According to TechRepublic, around one-third of SMBs targeted in a cyberattack lose customers following the breach.
A robust cybersecurity posture is not only crucial for an SMB, but it is also essential for business success. According to the 'State of Email Security in 2025' report by Osterman Research, 79% of the 200 IT professionals surveyed from SMBs reported experiencing at least one type of cybersecurity incident in the past 12 months. Notably, half of these organizations faced between two and four different types of incidents.
MSP Value for SMB Cybersecurity
One reason an SMB may be at risk is a lack of budget for cybersecurity, and another is a shortage of skilled security staff. An SMB can mitigate these budgetary and resource challenges by using a managed service provider (MSP).
An MSP provides an SMB with:
- Talented and experienced IT professionals as a service. Skilled staff can help ensure that the business adheres to data protection regulations. They can also address various aspects of cybersecurity posture, including assisting the business in developing business continuity and incident response plans for worst-case scenarios.
- Best-in-class cybersecurity solutions. An MSP has extensive experience working with some of the world's best security vendors. They are highly knowledgeable about upcoming threats and how to address them. They can supply an SMB with the solutions a large enterprise would use to mitigate attacks. An MSP has buying power, enabling them to provide these solutions to an SMB at a cost-effective price, often on a monthly subscription basis.
- Management and maintenance. An MSP will deploy, manage, and maintain any cybersecurity solution it delivers. This takes the onus off an SMB to keep configurations up to date and ensure that upgrades are deployed promptly. The MSP will also address security alerts and collaborate with the SMB to mitigate any attempted breaches.
SMB Threat Landscape & Decision Making
The threat landscape is rapidly evolving due to the increasing use of AI by cybercriminals. Criminals are developing increasingly evasive tactics. Massive data breaches are becoming commonplace. A recent attack involved the leak of 16 billion login credentials, likely caused by infostealer malware, credential stuffing, and data breaches.
Research from Osterman and TitanHQ identified phishing attacks as the most likely cause of credential theft. The cost of cyberattacks on an SMB's tight budget is staggering. For example, estimates for the overall cost of a cybersecurity incident at an SMB average US$1.6 million.
An SMB must be able to analyze the threat landscape and make fast and accurate decisions about mitigating new and emerging threats. However, understanding the complexities of the modern threat landscape is a time-consuming process. Security specialists do this as a full-time job. Understanding how to mitigate these threats is another specialism requiring expertise in cybersecurity tools and measures.
However, it is essential that an SMB can utilize threat landscape intelligence to inform its decision-making process. SMBs without dedicated security staff can use external consultants or an MSP to help determine best practices. Some vendors offer exceptional support services that provide customers with guidance on how to effectively utilize their solutions and address emerging threats.
Read more on how AI is used to create sophisticated cyber threats that are difficult to detect and prevent: "How AI Is Allowing Cybercriminals to Launch Sophisticated Cyber-attacks.”
Phishing & Social Threats to SMBs
Phishing and social engineering threats are the mainstay of cybercrime. Phishing leads to credential theft, which enables hackers to gain unauthorized access to your company's sensitive information. Once inside your company's network, the attacker can initiate various threat scenarios, including Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, ransomware infections, account takeovers, fraud, and data theft.
Phishing threats and social engineering are entering a new era where criminals are using AI to create increasingly evasive tactics. The following techniques and tactics are increasingly used to develop successful phishing campaigns:
QR Code Phishing (Quishing)
QR code phishing utilizes QR codes to deceive victims into visiting malicious websites. QR codes are generally trusted, and cybercriminals exploit this trust to socially engineer targets into believing that the site they have just entered is legitimate. QR Codes can also circumvent security protection, with conventional security email gateways (SEGs) unable to spot the phishing link hidden in the QR code image.
AI-Assisted Phishing
Generative AI and LLMs are used as tools to create believable and personalized phishing campaigns. AI is also being used to develop malware code.
Deepfakes
Deepfakes are increasingly used to socially engineer victims, with a 704% increase in “Face Swap” deepfake attacks, according to an iProov report. Security measures must be able to handle these new, sophisticated, and evasive threats. The answer is to deploy AI-enabled layers of unified cybersecurity measures.
Email Security for SMBs
Email is a targeted way into a network: Spam, phishing, spear phishing, and email-assisted social engineering are used to increase the attack surface. This complex mesh-like network of communication-led cyberattacks creates challenges for the SMB. Advanced protective measures that capture AI-assisted and evasive threats may be costly and complicated to deploy and configure.
However, a smaller organization must be able to utilize the best email security available on the market to counter sophisticated AI-enabled cyber threats. This may involve layering advanced solutions on top of your existing email security solution. According to the Osterman Research report, even with Microsoft 365 security, 79% of SMBs still experience cyber incidents.
The report also highlighted that 79% of SMBs believe email security solutions must utilize defensive AI to enhance a company's cybersecurity posture.
Advanced email security solutions, such as PhishTitan and SpamTitan, integrate deeply into Microsoft 365 (M365) and other productivity platforms. They utilize AI technologies, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning, to identify and prevent AI-assisted cyberattacks. The use of a vast corpus of real-world data to train machine learning algorithms enables email security solutions, such as PhishShield, to detect sophisticated attempts to exploit email for system breaches.
Web Filtering for SMBs
If a malicious email circumvents security, a DNS filter can prevent users from navigating to the phishing website. DNS filters work by checking that a domain is legitimate. The user will be blocked from accessing the domain if it is identified as a risky one. However, as phishing threats become more evasive, there is a need for advanced DNS filters that can also block malware, ransomware, and viruses.
From an SMB perspective, a DNS filter may be seen as complex to manage. Conventional DNS filters can be inaccurate, block legitimate sites, and fail to detect zero-day threats. However, an SMB may not have the internal staffing to spend time finely tuning and updating the configuration of a conventional DNS filter. This can make a DNS filter inaccurate, with misconfiguration leading to missed phishing attacks.
An SMB needs an easy-to-use, accurate, and manageable DNS filter. Accuracy and success are achieved by using an AI-enabled DNS filter. These advanced filters automate configuration and enhance the detection rates of modern cyber threats. If an SMB wants to offset this workload, an MSP can deploy and manage a DNS filter.
TitanHQ's WebTitan DNS Filter can be delivered by an MSP or used as a service. This cloud-based, AI-enabled content filter utilizes a threat corpus of over 500 million URLs to inform its machine learning engine.
Did You Know?
cyber attacks begin with phishing
to seamlessly install PhishTitan
estimated global cybercrime cost
to stop & spot a phishing attack
Security Awareness Training for SMBs
The people employed by an SMB are its greatest asset. This truth is universal and undisputed. But they can also be its security pain point. Human-centered cyberattacks that socially engineer employees are notorious. Current statistics indicate that the human factor remains one of the highest risk factors in security incidents within companies. Human error, social engineering, and phishing collectively account for 60% of data breaches being attributed to the human element.
Advanced email security and DNS filters are essential components in a layered approach to robust security. However, they must be augmented by security awareness training.
TitanHQ SAT is offered as a stand-alone solution or part of a unified and comprehensive cybersecurity platform. Continuous training is behavior-driven and can be tailored to individual employees to optimize their education and training outcomes.
TitanHQ SAT is an affordable solution that provides real-time, gamified phishing simulations, maintaining employee engagement and enhancing their ability to detect and prevent cyber threats. SAT comes with automated phishing simulations, known as 'Auto Campaigns,' based on configurable templates that reflect emerging threats.
TitanHQ SAT is a cloud-based service that can be delivered directly to an SMB or via an MSP.
Cloud-Based & Managed Network Solutions
SMB cybersecurity must be affordable and effective against a multitude of advanced cyber threats. Affordability is improved by using cloud-based solutions that are centrally deployed and managed. Automation is an area of cybersecurity that enables an SMB to manage advanced email security solutions. Automation not only speeds up delivery and management but also removes the human error that leads to misconfiguration.
A cloud-based centralized unified cybersecurity solution, incorporating email security, DNS filter, and security awareness training, provides the following:
- Centralized deployment and management using a single-pane-of-glass dashboard.
- A centralized dashboard can be used to generate real-time metrics and reports.
- AI-enabled and centrally managed advanced email security that continually learns to identify emerging threats.
- Centrally controlled DNS filter to prevent access to malicious online content.
- Automated phishing campaigns for ease of delivery.
A recent study by CIO.com on vendor consolidation found that 95% of IT executives plan to consolidate software to simplify system architecture and reduce costs. TitanHQ offers a unified solution that covers the full breadth of email security. Delivered by an MSP or as-a-service, TitanHQ's cybersecurity solutions cut costs, reduce management overhead, and provide advanced cybersecurity to an SMB.
Social Proof: SMB Testimonials & Events
The proof is not so much in the pudding, but more in what a community thinks about a solution. TitanHQ's solutions are constantly praised for ease of use, effectiveness against advanced threats, and affordability. Here's a taste of what a few of our customers are saying:
Email Security
“For our construction company, we chose to add PhishTitan as a companion to SpamTitan because of certain spoofing emails that had been getting through…While this is simply an estimate, I would say that the number of phishing and spoofed emails getting through has dropped by more than 95% compared to our previous email filter solution.” - Slashdot review.
Anti Spam Protection
“Keeps me stress free knowing my email is protected and I’m not receiving spam that wastes time.” Lindy Solomon, Action Instruments SA CC
DNS Filtering
“Not a whole lot of oversight is needed once WebTitan is installed. This is important, as I can’t actively monitor all of this 24/7. It’s just not possible. Therefore, it mustn’t require a lot of my time once it's deployed and working.” – Joe King, Director.
Security Awareness Training
“One of the best awareness tools I’ve seen and used. One of the benefits that I loved was the fact that I did not have to make any changes to my current environment to get the software running, as everything is cloud-based…I get email notifications and occasionally browse the reporting.” - Paul P, CEO
Geraldine Hunt
- SMB CYBERSECURITY
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