How Do You Solve a (Cyber) Problem Like Small Business?

As a newly minted small business owner, having quit an IT career, I found it unbelievably hard to apply the security principles from my work, to my own business. In this talk, I want to share some of the cyber-security challenges and opportunities that small business owners, like myself, face. My talk will draw from both my own experiences as a small business owner as well as the research done during my PhD. I will explore some of the reasons cyber-security is harder for small business, before concluding with opportunities for technical and research communities to pitch in.

The talk will first cover the important, and often invisible, role that small business plays in Australian society and economy. There is a human context to what a small business means to its owners.

Cyber-security challenges are not limited to technical reasons; some challenges derive from the fundamental characteristics of small businesses.

So, is it all bad news? No, there are opportunities for the community to help, 2 of which I will briefly explore: • Open source community – Harness the talent within the open source community to address fundamental resource limitations that exist for small businesses. • Better tooling – A pilot survey is currently underway that aims to better understand the use of IT by small businesses, (with details on how to participate) which can facilitate better solutions. (Note: Some of these information draws from my published academic articles and talk I gave at AISA Cybercon in November 2021. Further details available upon request.)