The money spent by small and medium businesses on IT security is surprisingly low against the high magnitude of the data loss threats – says a new study by IT security solutions provider Symantec.

The study articulates that small and medium businesses (SMBs) spend as low as Rs one lakh in a year on IT security though the threat of data losses is high. The study says that companies understand the need to protect their data, but they do not spend enough to deploy effective solutions for the protection of corporate data. 

Ajay Verma, Symantec India Director (Channels and Alliances), says, "There is a high awareness level and even smaller firms understand the need for protecting data, but they do not invest heavily or hire manpower to handle their IT. IT spends are sometimes as low as Rs one lakh.”

The Symantec study involved 75 SMBs (with up to 500 employees) including financial services, healthcare, retail, education, telecommunications, manufacturing, and real estate firms in the country. In the study, 24 per cent of the surveyed responded that they spent about $1,500-5,000 (Rs 70,900-2,35,000) for the protection of the corporate data, while 23 per cent admitted that they spent less than $500 (Rs 23,637) annually.  

According to Symantec study, the data loss due to virus attacks (73 per cent) topped the concern list of the participants, but concern for information losses because of spam (64 per cent), memory sticks (72 per cent) and e-mail (70 per cent) was also reflected in the study.

The study reveals the hurdles to IT security adoption in the form of staffing and budget costs.