The Small Business Development Center of Michigan based in Grand Rapids today announced a new initiative to assist small businesses across the state in evaluating their potential risk to cyber threats with the help from a $195,000 federal grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“The ultimate goal is to arm small businesses with information, an assessment of their awareness, and an action plan,” says Keith Brophy, state director of the Michigan Small Business Development Center. The center provides counseling, business education, information based planning, and technology commercialization services to businesses.
Brophy says the website offers individuals the opportunity to take an online assessment and receive a risk assessment report at its conclusion. He says the assessment takes about a half hour to complete. From there, Brophy says participants can view a wide variety of resources, including webinars, industry articles, and training focused on cyber security.
“Our goal is to have 1,000 individuals from the Michigan small business community experience the Small Business, Big Threat site by the end of 2015,” Brophy says. “Additionally, we hope to have 10,000 individuals experience the site by the end of 2016.”
He says small businesses are particularly at risk for cyber security threats because they can be targeted because they may be perceived more vulnerable than large corporations, they do not have the resources or expertise to guard against attacks, or they may not have the talent to recognize risk.
To take the assessment, visit SmallBusinessBigThreat.com.​
