BANGALORE, INDIA: In an exclusive interview with CIOL, Shubhomoy Biswas, country director, SonicWALL India, shares his views on security threats among SMBs' IT infrastructure. Excerpts:

CIOL: How vulnerable are SMBs to security threats?
Shubhomoy Biswas: Small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of today's economy. For SMBs, everything comes down to productivity, efficiency and the bottom line. This specifically rings true even for security.

The growing number of security threats created by attackers don't discriminate their targets on the basis of size. Targets are often randomly selected - and the smallest shop needs to have the same level of strong protection that the biggest Fortune 500 company enjoys.

SonicWALL offers solutions for organizations of all sizes, each one ideally suited to the unique challenges faced by each market - but each one delivering the most robust, easily managed and complete security environment.

CIOL: What are the major security issues that SMBs are facing?
SB: Email attachments, VPN Tunnel vulnerabilities and blended attacks are the major security issues that SMBs are facing.

Email attachments: Workers opening an attachment could unleash a worm or virus on to the corporate network, and a new evolution of viruses means that they can propagate themselves even without a user double-clicking on them;

VPN Tunnel vulnerabilities: A hacker who worms his way into the VPN has free and easy access to the network

Blended attacks: Worms and viruses are becoming more complicated, and now a single one may be able to execute itself or even attack more than one platform;

CIOL: Are SMBs liberal in adopting and investing in security solutions?
SB: SMBs look at security as a critical aspect of their business, and they're keen for knowledge, expertise and guidance on how to use security in smart ways. They recognize that security has forever altered the business ecosystem and there is no going back, even in a challenging period of economic upheaval.

Security is vital: SMBs say security is 'vital' to their business. SMBs generally intend to cut down on the overall spending, and may reduce some tech expenditures, but they'd prefer not to cut 'security' spending because it's simply too vital.

Quality and reliability: SMBs refuse to sacrifice security, quality and reliability to save on costs, again signaling the importance of connectivity. Also, SMBs note that their customer experience plays a big role in how they 'perceive' quality and reliability.

Long-term partnerships: SMBs reward security providers for service quality and reliability, but also for acting more like partners than vendors. They crave stability, wanting assurance that providers can weather tough times and have the financial strength to partner with them for long-term.

Consultation is appreciated: SMBs understand that the security landscape is complicated and the latest developments are virtually impossible to follow. So, they want advice on how to be smart with security.