The U.S. Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) has introduced $3 million in new funding to help cybersecurity for rising small companies. This initiative, underneath the Cybersecurity for Small Companies Pilot Program, will award three grants to state businesses, offering coaching and help to fight cyber threats.
Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the SBA, highlighted the significance of this funding. “With small companies accounting for 99.9 p.c of all American companies and using almost half of the non-public workforce, any cyber risk to our small companies is a risk to our nation’s total economic system,” stated Guzman. “The Biden-Harris Administration is dedicated to strengthening our nation’s cybersecurity and equipping small companies with the instruments they should strengthen their cyber well being and stop expensive assaults that disrupt their companies. By way of this new funding, the SBA will fund ecosystem companions to offer extra cyber coaching and counseling to strengthen small companies’ capability to compete on this more and more digital economic system.”
Functions for the grants might be accepted from July 2 to August 2. Candidates can apply for awards starting from $1,000,000 to $1,045,000, protecting a efficiency interval of 24 months ending in September 2026. Eligible candidates embody state and territorial authorities businesses aiming to supply tailor-made cybersecurity providers to startups and rising entrepreneurs.
This funding alternative will help efforts to coach rising small companies when they’re most weak to cyber threats. It would assist them develop strong cybersecurity measures, that are crucial for working in in the present day’s digital economic system.
The SBA’s Cybersecurity for Small Enterprise Pilot Program has awarded almost $9 million since 2022. Proposals for this spherical of funding should be posted to Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. (EDT) on August 2 underneath “Cybersecurity for Small Enterprise Pilot” (Funding Alternative Quantity SB-OEDCS-24-001).
Along with the grant program, the SBA, together with its Useful resource Companions, provides varied cybersecurity assets to small companies. These embody in-person and on-line coaching. Small enterprise homeowners can discover native SBA assets at www.sba.gov/local-assistance and be taught extra about SBA’s cybersecurity applications and providers at www.sba.gov/cybersecurity.
In regards to the Cybersecurity for Small Enterprise Pilot Program
Cyberattacks pose an actual risk to small companies and the broader U.S. economic system. In keeping with the FBI’s Web Crime Report, cybercrimes in opposition to small companies price $2.9 billion in 2023. Small companies are sometimes focused as a result of their invaluable info and usually weaker safety infrastructure in comparison with bigger enterprises.
An SBA survey revealed that 88% of small enterprise homeowners felt their companies had been weak to cyberattacks. Many small companies wrestle with affording skilled IT options, lack the time for cybersecurity, or don’t know the place to start out. Eligible candidates for this program are state governments looking for to offer cybersecurity coaching and providers to small companies.
This pilot program allows state governments to broaden their present providers, innovate, and develop new assets to help extra small companies. It additionally goals to extend entry to underserved and underrepresented small enterprise communities, guaranteeing a wider affect.
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