More than twice as many small businesses are investing in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies than in cybersecurity, according to recent research. And while this may raise some red flags, it is possible that small businesses are spending less on cybersecurity for justifiable reasons.

A poll conducted by Survey Monkey for business network CNBC says 44% of small businesses are planning to invest in IoT while only 20% plan to invest in cybersecurity. Naturally, this raises the very real concern that companies may purchase technology without properly securing it. Doing so, of course, would be a mistake.

As a whole, small businesses are thought to be less prepared to fend off cyber threats than larger companies. This is the conventional wisdom. However, (ISC)² research has countered this long-held belief, showing small businesses and large enterprises approach cybersecurity in very similar ways.

While the toolsets used by large and small companies may differ, both of them largely follow the same data protection best practices, which include automatic scans with endpoint solutions, firewalls to block access to known malicious IP addresses, and email filters to prevent phishing, according to the Securing the Partner Ecosystem study.

Cybersecurity First

If small businesses already have made the necessary foundational investments in cybersecurity, as the (ISC)² study indicates, it stands to reason they may not need to increase investments in that infrastructure as much as they might in new technologies, such as IoT solutions. The IoT, for all intents and purposes, still remains an emerging technology for many businesses.

Some industry experts have serious doubts about how much investment small businesses will actually make. Dan Faggella, founder of Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, Boston, told CNBC he believes small business spending on IoT will be limited.

In any case, he added, cybersecurity comes first for small businesses. “Essentially, 100% of the time cybersecurity is going to come before some kind of fancy strategy for essentially any small business,” Faggella said.

If he is right – and (ISC)² research suggests he may be – the Survey Monkey/CNBC results aren’t as troubling as they may appear. If less than half of small businesses are planning investments in cybersecurity as in IoT, presumably it’s because they’ve already invested in an underlying security platform to protect their networks and data.

Of course, businesses shouldn’t assume they have all the protection they need once they start deploying IoT solutions. If small businesses cannot protect IoT devices with the security they already have in place, they will need to deploy additional security to avoid opening up new points of vulnerability throughout their systems.

Credit Due

Small businesses often get a bad rap for their approach to security, but as the Securing the Partner Ecosystem Study showed, it is largely undeserved. They have come a long way in protecting their environments, and there is no reason to believe they won’t be just as diligent in securing their IoT installations.