The FTC announces new cybersecurity education for small business

Last year, we heard from small business owners about their cybersecurity challenges at a series of roundtable discussions the FTC hosted with some of its partners. What we learned is that small business owners need and want information on how to keep their computer systems and business data safe. So we’re planning to provide that to them. Later this year, the FTC will launch a small business education campaign on cybersecurity, in partnership with other federal agencies.

Specifically, they told us they want clear, easy-to-use resources about cyber threats and how to deal with them. Most business owners we met said they’re concerned about human error — their own employees or themselves doing something that inadvertently would compromise the business’ systems. Phishing schemes, ransomware attacks, tech support scams, and imposter scams are among their top cybersecurity concerns. Mobile device security, cloud security, wireless connections, email authentication, and what to look for when purchasing web hosting services are also topics they’d like to know more about.

The FTC business education campaign will cover those and other cybersecurity topics based on what we learned at the roundtable discussions. With these materials, business owners will be able to learn more about cybersecurity and train their employees, and will add to the resources currently available at FTC.gov/StartwithSecurity.

We share our plans for this business education campaign and other specifics about what we heard from small business owners in the new FTC’s staff perspective report Engage, Connect, Protect: The FTC’s Projects and Plans to Foster Small Business Cybersecurity. If you want to be notified when the campaign materials are ready, send us an email to smallbizcyber@ftc.gov or stay tuned to this blog.