10 Misconceptions SME Leaders Have About Cybersecurity

Smart leaders make smart mistakes. These ten misconceptions show up again and again in small and mid‑sized companies. Each section explains the idea in plain language, what attackers actually do, and what it can cost your business. The goal of this article is to provide an executive understanding of cybersecurity that provides clarity rather than jargon.

Cybersecurity misconception: “We are too small to be a target.”

Plain English: Criminals go after what pays quickly. Smaller companies often look easier because roles overlap, tools are simpler, and financial approvals move faster. The result is not fewer attacks, but different ones: social engineering, account takeovers, and vendor-based fraud that move money or data without breaking in visibly.

What can be hacked: Finance and executive email, billing systems, cloud file shares, remote access, payroll, and vendor portals are the usual targets because they are connected to money and trust. If an attacker can read invoices, reset passwords, or impersonate a leader, they can move funds and gain leverage.

What it can cost: The common loss is a fraudulent payment or wire change that removes six figures before anyone notices. Recovery ties up staff for days as accounts are reclaimed and customers reassured. Incidents also raise insurance premiums and may trigger legal and reporting costs. The reputational damage is real when partners learn that your mailbox or portal was the entry point.

Leadership move: Treat smaller scale as an advantage. Fewer, less complex systems mean you can set a short list of controls and check them frequently. Start with identity security for email and finance, require strong sign-in, remove unused admin rights, and rehearse how you would restore access in a single morning.

Cybersecurity misconception: “The firewall protects us.”

Plain English: A firewall filters network traffic at your perimeter. Modern work happens in cloud apps, vendor portals, and remote access where a firewall cannot make the decision of “who is allowed.” Most real-world incidents succeed by logging in, not by breaking in.

What can be hacked: When attackers obtain a password or trick an 2fa prompt, they enter through email, file storage, HR, or finance as if they were a valid user. Vulnerable remote access appliances and misconfigured cloud settings are also frequent paths that no traditional firewall blocks.

What it can cost: Unauthorized payments (this is a common theme for SME's), altered payroll, exposure of contracts or HR files, and outages if remote access or core apps are seized. The most expensive line items are incident response, legal review, customer notification, and lost productivity while teams are locked out.

Leadership move: Spend as much attention on identity and least privilege as you do on perimeter gear. Require a second check on sign-in, limit privileges, and confirm device health before access. Ask for a monthly report that shows who has admin rights to what and why.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Passing the audit means we are secure.”

Plain English: I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this.  An audit proves you met defined requirements at a point in time. Audits also have scopes: by design they include some systems and exclude others. Very often, whole departments, SaaS apps, and vendor connections sit outside scope, which means a clean report does not cover your entire risk environment. Security is whether you can withstand real attackers on any day. The gap appears when systems drift out of scope, systems are not maintained, new apps are launched, or vendors connect after the audit window closes.

What can be hacked: Anything outside scope is potentially a silent liability: overlooked SaaS apps, aging integrations, service accounts with inappropriately wide privileges, and vendor connections granted for a quick project and are never removed. These are attractive because documentation is thin and ownership is unclear.

What it can cost: A breach right after a clean report undermines trust with the board and customers. You may still face fines or contractual penalties if the control failed in practice. Your security team will have to rebuild confidence in the program rather than the paper.

Leadership move: Keep a living risk register covering your entire environment, including SaaS and vendors. Review the top risks quarterly, assign owners and deadlines, and verify that controls still work. Use audits to confirm the floor, not the ceiling, and make sure new systems and vendors enter the same control process.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Our cloud provider secures our data and apps.”

Plain English: Cloud and SaaS providers secure the platform. You secure your users, data, and settings. This shared responsibility model means configuration, access, and backups remain your job.

What can be hacked: Public links left open, object storage folders shared to “anyone with the link,” admin roles granted broadly, API keys stored in notes, and accounts without strong multi-factor authentication (MFA). None of these require the provider to be breached; they rely on your settings.

What it can cost: Silent exposure of customer files, mass downloads of contracts, and regulatory reporting if personal data is accessed. There are also soft costs: renegotiated contracts, security questionnaires that grow longer, and slower sales while buyers seek reassurance.

Leadership move: Assign a security champion for each SaaS platform. Require strong multifactor authentication , review admin roles frequently, set data retention rules, and establish a backup and restore plan you have tested. Treat sharing settings like spending limits: intentional, reviewed, and documented.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Patching can wait.”

Plain English: Patching is applying vendor fixes. Attackers monitor these fixes and quickly look for systems that have not been updated. Waiting converts a known issue into an open door.

What can be hacked: Internet-facing apps and appliances, remote access gateways, content management plugins, and older libraries embedded in line-of-business tools. Devices that lack a clear owner often fall far behind.

What it can cost: Unplanned downtime from exploitation, emergency after-hours labor, and possible encryption of systems if criminals deploy ransomware after entry. The indirect costs include delayed projects and strained customer commitments.

Leadership move: Set service-level goals: critical internet-facing fixes within days, important internal fixes within weeks. Track exceptions and require a business reason to delay. Verify patch status for remote access and any system that touches revenue.  Make sure every system is owned and responsibility is clearly understood.  Treat every laptop and mobile device as internet-facing!

Cybersecurity misconception: “Our MSP handles security.”

Plain English: A Managed Service Provider extends your team, but you still own outcomes, for better or worse. If you suffer a data breach, it's your data that was breached, not the MSP's.  Clarity on roles, access, and evidence is what turns an MSP from an undisciplined helper into a reliable partner.

What can be hacked: If attackers compromise the MSP’s remote tools or shared credentials, they inherit broad access to your systems. If logging is incomplete, you may not be able to prove what happened or when.  

What it can cost: A single breach can cascade across servers, workstations, and cloud tenants, followed by disputes over scope and responsibility. Without clear logs, investigations take longer and cost more, and insurers may challenge, or refuse to pay claims, leaving the company to an expensive breakup, and litigation against their MSP.

Leadership move: Put specifics in writing: separate named admin accounts, least-privilege access, logs you can see, and a tested incident plan with roles for both teams. Ask for quarterly security reporting that covers access, patching, and backups.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Zero Trust is a product we can buy.”

Plain English: Zero Trust is a way of operating that assumes everything is breached and verifies every access. It reduces how far an attacker can move and how much they can see if a single asset is compromised.

What can be hacked: Flat networks, shared admin accounts, and legacy systems with broad access let an intruder explore quickly. Once inside, they look for finance or operational systems that create leverage.

What it can cost: Incidents spread faster and take longer to contain when there are no boundaries. Forensics and recovery expand from one team to the whole company, raising costs and downtime.

Leadership move: Start simple: verify identity and device health on every sign-in, reduce privileges to only what is needed, and segment crown-jewel systems such as finance, production, or patient data. Measure progress in smaller blast radiuses and shorter recovery times.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Strong passwords are enough.”

Plain English: Even strong passwords are reused or stolen. Multi-factor authentication during sign-in and limits on what a session can do are what stop most real incidents.

What can be hacked: Email and finance portals, vendor platforms, and administrative consoles that accept only a password. Attackers buy credentials, phish users, or guess variants of known passwords.

What it can cost: Fraudulent payments, diverted payroll, exposure of sensitive correspondence, and time-consuming notifications to customers and partners. The indirect cost is attention pulled from growth work while leaders manage fallout.

Leadership move: Require multi-factor sign-in for email, finance, and admin portals, and choose phishing-resistant methods where possible. Pair this with least-privilege roles and session timeouts so a stolen login cannot do much damage.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Security is an IT problem, not a leadership issue.”

Plain English: Cyber risk is a business risk that affects every department and every leader in your organization.  From revenue, and contracts, to marketing and brand. The key decisions are tradeoffs between speed, cost, and assurance, which belong with leadership.

What can be hacked: Processes that move money and fulfill orders, regulated data that triggers reporting, and supplier connections that affect delivery. These are driven by business choices, not just tools.

What it can cost: Lost sales during outages, penalties for missed obligations, legal bills, and higher renewal friction when customers doubt your controls. The biggest cost is opportunity lost while teams repair trust.

Leadership move: Put cyber next to finance and operations on the risk register. Review top risks quarterly, fund the few controls that change outcomes, and ask for business metrics like days to restore core systems and dollars at risk from a supplier outage.

Cybersecurity misconception: “Third‑party risk is minor.”

Plain English: Vendors and partners extend your capabilities and your attack surface. If a supplier is compromised, your data and operations can still be affected even when your systems look fine.

What can be hacked: Remote access granted to a vendor, shared data rooms, integration keys, and outsourced payroll or help desk tools. Attackers prefer these paths because trust is already established.

What it can cost: You may have to notify customers about a breach that began at a supplier. Operations can stall if a key vendor is down. Contracts may impose penalties, and renewals get harder when buyers see dependency risk.

Leadership move: Inventory critical vendors and what they can touch. Require strong sign-in, logging, and a breach-notification clause. Build fallback plans for your top vendors so you can keep serving customers if one is unavailable.

What good looks like for SMEs

• Identity first: Protect sign‑ins to email, finance, and SaaS. Use phishing‑resistant MFA and remove unused admin rights.

• Backups that work: Keep a copy offline or immutable and test restores.

• Patch with purpose: Fix internet‑facing systems quickly and track exceptions.

• Segment your crown jewels: Keep operational and financial systems contained.

• Practice the worst day: Run a tabletop exercise with your MSP, legal, and finance.

Executive checklist

• Do we know our top five business risks from cyber incidents in dollars and in days of downtime?

• Who owns security outcomes, not just tools?

• Which systems must be back in hours, and have we proved it in a real restore test?

• Which vendors can reach our data or network, and what do we require of them in writing?

• How do we know our controls are still working this week, not only at the last audit?

Closing

Cybersecurity is not a technology project. It is a leadership practice that protects revenue, customers, and brand. The most effective small and mid‑sized companies pick a few decisions that matter, make them routine, and measure them. Start with identity, patching, vendor control, and containment of crown‑jewel systems. If you want an outside view, Stoic Cybersecurity helps US companies turn these decisions into a simple, repeatable program that scales with the business.