Oct. 4, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota State University.

Just like everyone else, small businesses across the country face cybersecurity threats. This includes the almost 90,000 small businesses in South Dakota.

According to a survey from the Small Business Administration, 88 percent of small-business owners felt their business was vulnerable to a cyberattack. And these attacks are expensive. According to the FBI’s annual internet crime report, the cost of cybercrimes against the small-business community reached $2.4 billion in 2021.

This is why the SBA has instituted a pilot program to help small businesses. Dakota State University is one of three institutions that each received almost $1 million for this work. The other institutions are the Forge Institute in Arkansas and the Department of Commerce in Maryland.

“This is important because everything is digital,” said Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, DSU’s vice president for research and economic development. “We all have information that needs to be private and secure, but business owners may not understand the cyber risks.”

This one-year program, called Cyber Safe SD, will become part of the solution by helping business owners understand how to stay cyber safe.

Collaborations with other agencies will strengthen the program.

“With our partnership with the South Dakota Fusion Center, Consumer Protection Agency, the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, we will be able to offer a robust cybersecurity program for South Dakota’s small businesses,” DSU President José-Marie Griffiths said.

According to SBA South Dakota District Director Jaime Wood, the SBA cybersecurity investment propels Dakota State University’s capability to diminish catastrophic digital threats to the state’s 90,000 small businesses and beyond.

“We’re thrilled to bring this award to rural South Dakota to increase cybersafety for small businesses, their customers and the global supply chain – it’s a game-changer in the commercial space,” Wood said.

Podhradsky spoke at the recent Sioux Falls Cybersecurity Conference and shared details about the program. It will be available free of charge to South Dakota businesses and includes four components: cybersecurity assessments, social engineering and security awareness training, a cyberintelligence component and remediation.

“We had a good response to the news by the business community,” Podhradsky said. Businesses already have signed up for services, and Dakota State expects to begin working with clients in October.

Podhradsky is particularly excited about the Cyber Safe SD program.

“I spend a lot of my time traveling around the country for various research-related purposes, and now I will get to see more of our state and meet the people who are the backbone of our economy. It is very gratifying to be able to help those who prop up our state.”

Service is part of Dakota State’s mission to the state, and the university has been providing a similar service to municipalities for several years.

Since 2020, DSU’s Project Boundary Fence has been working with municipalities to identify network vulnerabilities. This service is also free to city and county governments through a partnership with the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office and Consumer Protection Agency. It has helped clients from east to west across the state and large to small municipalities. Earlier this year, it was announced that funding for this program was extended for another three years.

This experience means that Dakota State’s SBA program not only will be aspirational, it also will be operational. While it is slated for one year, Podhradsky hopes that when it is successful, DSU will have more funding to support the cybersecurity needs of South Dakota’s small businesses.

“We’ve been doing this in the Madison Cyber Labs for several years,” Podhradsky said. With this grant, “we will be taking our best practices pioneered by our faculty and staff in the MadLabs and bringing it to a new audience.”

For information on this new program, check the Cyber Safe SD webpage or email [email protected].