The New Face Of Cybercrime

As cybercrime continues to target the SMB with sophisticated and elusive malware, businesses will be required to do more with less—enhance their security solutions on an IT budget that's a fraction of their enterprise counterparts. But that doesn't mean SMBs can't protect themselves. Products that were once considered high-end and specialized are becoming more standardized and affordable. Here are a few partner suggestions:

Endpoint Protection Service: In light of the economy, partners say that SMBs will gravitate more toward solutions that enhance security and reduce reliance on IT staff. As a result, SMBs will continue to adopt comprehensive, yet affordable, subscription-based services that incorporate antivirus, antispyware, antispam and Web security, as well as antiphishing and a desktop firewall. This solution eliminates the need for additional hardware, allowing SMBs to redirect limited staff and resources away from routine security updates and maintenance.

Data Loss Prevention/Protection: According to Everything Channel's 2008 State of Technology: Security, 66 percent of partners said that DLP solutions are the top product fueling sales while the majority of partners said that DLP solutions topped their charts as the fastest-growing technology. Partners also considered DLP technologies the second most profitable security solution, following managed security services. Consequently, SMBs will be adopting DLP products that incorporate an array of encryption technologies.

Unified Threat Management: Geared for the SMB and lower midmarket, UTM solutions incorporate numerous security functions into one easy-to-manage appliance, which can be managed either by the company's IT staff or by a channel partner. UTM devices often come equipped with standard security solutions such as network and application layer firewalls, antivirus, e-mail and spam filtering, intrusion detection and content filtering.

Web Protection Services: Partners say that cloud-based services are steadily growing in the SMB space, especially when it comes to Web threat protection. In addition to being convenient and less resource-intensive, these subscription-based services eliminate the threat of malware.

--Stefanie Hoffman