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Cyberterrorism

SMBs Under Siege: Guardz Threat Report Reveals Soaring Cyberattacks

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Cyber threats against small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have escalated dramatically in the first half of 2025, with SMBs facing nearly twice as many weekly incidents compared to the same period last year. The rise of easily accessible Attack-as-a-Service offerings on the dark web has further lowered the barrier to entry, enabling even inexperienced threat actors to launch highly effective campaigns. According to threat intelligence gathered directly from the Guardz customer base, MSPs are uniquely positioned to deliver layered defenses, proactive monitoring, and incident response capabilities that SMBs cannot easily build or manage on their own.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ransomware attacks have increased exponentially, with nearly 100 types of ransomware detections logged among SMBs in the first half of 2025.
  • Credentials-focused attacks rose the most across all attack types, with over 80% of breaches involving stolen or compromised passwords.
  • Phishing accounted for 1,876 incidents, while Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams were recorded, with Generative AI increasing the believability of phishing messages.
  • Cloud Exploitation Soars, with password attacks on cloud accounts spiking tenfold, targeting cloud login portals.
  • The impact and severity of attacks varied significantly by industry, with financial services absorbing the largest share at 24.4% of all incidents.
  • Guardz also found that government entities faced 12.7% of attacks but experienced the highest severity overall, with an average score of 4.9.

Statistics:

  • SMBs faced nearly twice as many weekly incidents in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year.
  • 100 types of ransomware detections were logged among SMBs in the first half of 2025.
  • Over 80% of breaches involved stolen or compromised passwords.
  • Phishing and BEC scams were recorded, with 1,876 and 1,423 incidents, respectively.
  • Password attacks on cloud accounts spiked tenfold, targeting cloud login portals.
  • Microsoft 365 environments saw 3,042 attacks, with Outlook/Exchange alone making up 41% of cases.
  • Google Workspace apps were targeted with 2,335 attacks, led by phishing (38%) and OAuth app abuse (18%).

Sources:

  • Guardz SMB Threat Report, available at [www.guardz.net](http://www.guardz.net).

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