Phishing or email scams account for more than half of cyber attacks suffered by Australian SMEs, according to a survey by cyber-security group Symantec.

One in 10 SMEs has been affected by ransomware attacks, and 34% of those paid the average ransom of $4677 in exchange for their stolen data.

About 8% of businesses that paid did not receive their files back.

Despite the risk of falling victim to cyber attacks, almost a quarter of survey respondents have no internet security solution, because they do not view it as a priority.

“It’s tough running a small business at the best of the times and sometimes businesses overlook things until it’s too late,” Symantec says. “Businesses shouldn’t wait until they’ve been hit by a cyber attack to think about what they should have done to secure their information.”

SMEs should consider investing in cyber insurance, Symantec says.

The Norton cyber-security survey’s summary findings were extracted from a national sample of 1023 business owners and operators last August.