Workers at small companies are more likely to put their employers at risk through ‘risky online behaviour’ than their counterparts at larger firms, a Trend Micro study has shown.

The study, which canvassed the opinions of 1,600 employees at small firms in the UK, US, Germany and Japan, found that employees at smaller firms were more likely to check personal email, surf the web, visit social networking sites and download executable files.

Phishing attacks were of particular concern – half of small businesses in the UK claimed to have experienced an attack in the past year.

Despite this many users continue to battle with spam and 32% admitted to downloading executable files which can potentially lead to Trojan or virus attacks, and ultimately, data theft.

The survey’s authors attribute this lackadaisical approach to security to a lack of preventative policies in place, added to which only 50% of UK respondents have an IT department.

Often small and medium sized firms will have the same security concerns as large enterprises, but will lack budget and resources to put sophisticated security measures in place.

“These results tell me that small businesses often lack the resources and manpower to maintain complicated security solutions,” said Steve Quana, executive general manager, SMB unit, Trend Micro.

“But [they] still need security that is comprehensive and effective at battling the multiple Internet-related threats that could compromise their networks and put their businesses at risk,” he warned.

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