Small Businesses in Central Pennsylvania Can't Afford to Ignore Cybersecurity Anymore

By Aaron Mimran, Regional Vice President, Comcast Business

In Central Pennsylvania, small businesses are the connective tissue of our local economy. Across the Commonwealth, a total of 1.1 million small businesses account for 99.6 percent of businesses in the state. Now, alongside familiar economic pressures, small business owners across the region face a risk that is easy to underestimate and increasingly costly to ignore.

For many owners, cybersecurity still feels like something built for large enterprises – too complex, too expensive, and too far removed from the day–to–day demands of running a business. That perception is understandable. For a long time, it wasn't entirely wrong. Traditional cybersecurity solutions often require dedicated hardware, specialized IT support, and ongoing management that most small businesses simply couldn't sustain.

But the threat environment has caught up with small businesses faster than the tools available to protect them. Today, 43% of all cyberattacks target small businesses, and financial losses from a single breach can exceed $500,000, enough to threaten the viability of a business built over years. Cybercriminals are increasingly automated and indiscriminate; they are not bypassing small businesses because of their size. Importantly, these figures continue to evolve as attackers become faster and more sophisticated. Comcast Business will release its 2026 Cybersecurity Threat Report on October 1, providing fresh insight into the scale and speed of today's threat landscape and the tactics businesses should be watching most closely.

A different approach is emerging – one that meets small businesses where they are. When cybersecurity is built directly into the network itself, it can intercept threats before they reach devices or disrupt operations, without requiring business owners to manage additional infrastructure or develop technical expertise. Security becomes part of the connection, not a separate investment on top of it.

Comcast Business's SecurityEdge™ Preferred reflects this evolution. Because it is embedded directly into the internet connection businesses already rely on, it activates in minutes and operates continuously without hands–on management. For small business owners in Central Pennsylvania, that means meaningful, enterprise–grade security that fits into the reality of running a business – not an idealized version of one.

As Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins, business owners can look to the upcoming Comcast Business 2026 Cybersecurity Threat Report, releasing October 1, for a deeper look at the threats organizations are facing today and practical steps they can take to strengthen their defenses. The report analyzes cybersecurity events detected across Comcast Business security customers and offers insights into how the threat landscape continues to evolve.