New N‑able Report Underscores Escalating Cyber Threats Facing SMBs

N‑able, Inc., a global software company delivering a unified cyber resiliency platform, launched its first annual 2025 threat report, exploring the rise in cyberattacks on small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) ranging from 100-2,500 employees. The report uncovers a dramatic rise in detected threats across SMBs, from approximately 48,749 in June 2024 to over 13.3 million by June 2025, as they increasingly invest in the proper security tools to monitor their environments and mitigate risk.While many SMBs have long assumed they’re too small to be targeted by cybercriminals, new data from N‑able shows that perception is rapidly changing. Threat actors are increasingly favoring quicker, low-effort attacks on SMBs over complex enterprise breaches, exploiting limited defenses for faster payoffs. The N‑able unified platform is designed to help SMBs level the playing field by delivering enterprise-grade visibility, protection, and response capabilities tailored to their unique needs.

“Legacy security controls don’t keep pace with the challenges faced by today’s SMB,” said Kevin O’Connor, director, Threat Research, N‑able. “Adversaries are constantly developing and deploying attacks that exploit common gaps in visibility and response. SMBs need solutions that deliver coverage across the threat lifecycle and fit within operational constrains – exactly what N‑able provides.”

Using data from the N‑able ecosystem, the N‑able threat research team revealed the following

• Cybercriminals are targeting small and midsized businesses more than ever: Attackers are no longer skipping over smaller businesses – in fact, they’re increasingly targeting them.
• AI is supercharging social engineering: Attackers are leveraging generative AI to create convincing phishing messages that resemble real people and writing styles. Certain messages are even able to fool the most tech-savvy of employees.
• Ransomware remains a significant threat: The pervasive impact of ransomware accounted for nearly 1.9 million detections in the first half of 2025 observed by the team.

“The findings align closely with what we’re seeing, the pace of change in cybersecurity is relentless. It’s easy to get caught up in the complexity of today’s landscape: AI-driven threats, ransomware attacks, evolving regulations, and a flood of new tools and technologies. But real success comes from going back to the basics. Things like maintaining patches, ensuring reliable backups, continuous monitoring, endpoint protection, and having clear processes in place – businesses can’t afford to operate in reactive mode,” said Vinod Paul, president, Align. “When we stay grounded in the basics, we’re in the best position to protect our clients and build lasting trust. We trust N‑able as a partner that delivers on the promise of cybersecurity.”

N‑able will demonstrate its unified platform—purpose-built to address threats across every stage of the attack lifecycle at Black Hat 2025, taking place August 5–7 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The platform integrates cyber resilience across endpoint management, security operations and backup and data protection.