Cybersecurity compliance is becoming an increasingly important commercial issue for small and medium-sized businesses, with new research from Kaspersky revealing that a quarter of SMBs failing to meet supply chain security requirements have lost contracts as a result.The cybersecurity vendor’s study found that 90% of SMBs involved in supply chains were required to satisfy IT security standards imposed by customers or partners, yet only 29% managed to meet every requirement.The consequences are significant. Among businesses reporting non-compliance, 42% experienced contract delays, 26% were disqualified from tenders and 25% lost contracts altogether. More than half (54%) were forced to revise their cybersecurity strategies and allocate additional budgets. For managed service providers, the findings highlight an opportunity to reposition cybersecurity from a technical necessity to a service that helps smaller customers protect revenue and win business.Making compliance accessible to SMBsSpeaking to IT Europa, Anna Papla, Territory Channel Manager at Kaspersky (pictured), said MSPs have an important role in helping smaller organisations navigate increasingly complex security expectations, particularly where budgets and internal expertise are limited.”They just need to find the right approach, and they find the right approach by obviously working with the right vendor [that] offers multiple layers of different types of products that can actually allow them to have these conversations,” she said.The research suggests that investment in more sophisticated cybersecurity is associated with improved compliance outcomes. While only 3% of businesses describing their protection as basic met every security requirement, that figure rose to 44% among organisations deploying advanced solutions such as EDR, XDR and SIEM.The most commonly unmet requirements included security certifications, incident response planning and advanced security tooling, each cited by 26% of respondents, followed by third-party penetration testing and security audits at 25%.For MSPs, addressing these gaps creates opportunities to introduce additional managed services, from vulnerability management and employee awareness training to compliance assessments and incident response planning.Building services around customer needsPapla highlighted the importance of flexible licensing and modular security platforms that allow MSPs to introduce additional capabilities as customers’ requirements evolve. “You can just pick and choose what you like, what works best for you,” she said, describing Kaspersky’s multi-tenant management approach.Kaspersky’s Next Optimum portfolio combines endpoint detection and response with optional capabilities covering vulnerability management, email security and security awareness. The modular structure allows partners to expand services without requiring customers to adopt an entirely new security infrastructure.However, Papla emphasised that helping partners navigate the changing regulatory environment requires more than technology alone. “It’s the training, it’s it’s the conversations that we’re having with them as well,” she said.With larger organisations increasingly scrutinising the cybersecurity practices of their suppliers, the research suggests that MSPs able to translate compliance obligations into affordable, practical services could find a growing market among SMB customers.The research surveyed 2,516 cybersecurity decision-makers and IT security specialists at companies employing 50 to 499 people across 24 countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, although the UK was not included. Of those surveyed, 1,997 worked for organisations involved in supply chains.
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