What the cyber threat means for artisans. Keep an eye on the data: +45.5%

The latest episode, in chronological order, comes from the other side of the world: on July 2, the Australian airline Qantas announced that it had suffered a cyber attack that put the personal data of millions of customers at risk. Between the end of February and the beginning of March, thirty small and medium-sized businesses in the Veneto region were 'attacked' by a group of hackers specialized in attacks on SMEs and in demanding large ransoms to reacquire data. These are just two of the countless cases that confirm how cybersecurity has become one of the global emergencies of our time, in a context increasingly marked by hybrid conflicts and geopolitical instability. And that no business, small or large, is immune from risks. A small Italian manufacturing company that was the victim of a 'man in the middle' cyber attack knows something about this. A hacker infiltrated the company's email, intercepted an invoice intended for a foreign customer of the company and, via a falsified email domain almost identical to the original, sent a modified document with a fraudulent IBAN. The customer, unaware, made the payment to the fraudulent account, with serious economic and reputational damage to the company. In Italy the phenomenon takes on alarming proportions.

According to an analysis by Confartigianato, between 2019 and 2023, cyber crimes reported by companies increased by 45.5%, much more than any other type of crime damaging business activity . 15.8% of Italian companies have suffered at least one cyber incident with direct consequences such as the unavailability of ICT services, the destruction or disclosure of data. This figure is still lower than the EU average (21.5%), but still indicative of a growing trend. “Cybersecurity is now a priority for all entrepreneurs,” says the president of Confartigianato, Marco Granelli, “and should not be considered a cost, but an opportunity, an investment to protect the precious heritage of company data and increase competitiveness on the market. There is no time to waste: even SMEs must adopt effective tools and systems to protect themselves, adapting to increasingly stringent regulations that must also be easily applicable.” Italian companies are getting ready. Confartigianato reveals that 83.1% give high importance to cybersecurity, a percentage that exceeds the European Union average (71.1%) and places us in second place after Ireland. In 2024, 42.6% of companies indicated cybersecurity as a priority area of ​​investment, also in relation to the adoption of artificial intelligence tools. Despite this, only 32.2% of our companies adopt at least 7 of the 11 security measures monitored by Istat, a figure lower than the 38.5% EU average but up from 28% in 2022. The problem of problems remains the lack of skills. 22.8% of Italian companies report difficulties in finding personnel specialized in cybersecurity, compared to 12% of the European average. A gap that is even more marked in the case of cyber security experts, for whom the difficulty of hiring reaches 63.7%, compared to 47.8% for all workers. This is a criticality that particularly affects small businesses and artisans, for whom the percentage of unobtainable figures exceeds the national average . Between 2019 and 2024, Italian users of digital financial services - such as home banking and corporate banking - increased by +25.8%, while payments with POS went from 8.3% to 15.7% of added value. A growing digitalization that, if not adequately protected, exposes companies to ever greater risks. President Granelli warns: "We need knowledge, practical tools and resources to defend ourselves. But above all, we need a vision that considers cybersecurity a fundamental pillar of innovation and economic growth".

More on these topics: