The Georgia Cyber Center downtown was the latest stop for the U.S. Small Business Administration on Wednesday afternoon, part of a four-day expedition across the country for National Small Business Week.
“It’s very impressive, the collaboration that they have built at the Georgia Cyber Center,” said Administrator Isabella Guzman, head of the Small Business Administration, after a tour of the center. “They have a government and educational institutions, as well as small business and big business, coming together to really try to solve this huge problem of cybersecurity.”
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The Cyber Center was the focus of the SBA’s arrival to Augusta, having stopped in Atlanta that morning, on its national “Building a Better America Through Entrepreneurship” bus tour. Guzman is scheduled to visit nine cities total to connect with local SBA offices to celebrate National Small Business Week 2022.
The tour began Monday on the West Coast, in San Francisco, moving to Denver on Tuesday. For the stop in Augusta, Guzman visited the Cyber Center to “highlight the importance of cyber security for small businesses,” according to the administration’s press release.
“When a small business thinks about their resilience, a lot of times it’s with disaster preparedness or financial health and all those things are so critical,” said Guzman. “But in addition, your cyber health is really important. Businesses, when they’re attacked, half of them don’t survive past that year. It can be devastating. The cost can be over $20,000 we experience a cyber attack.”
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Guzman also mentioned that the SBA is in the process of finalizing grants to award to states to help build best practices around cyber-readiness.
“We’re about providing a network of resource partners around the country who give free advice to small businesses,” she said. “We want to strengthen our knowledge around cyber and cyber training for our small businesses.”
Guzman further lauded the cooperative model of the facility, noting its focus challenges and threats small businesses face. She also connected it with SBA initiatives, such as the Small Business Digital Alliance, a partnership between the SBA and nonprofit Business Forward to support enterprises with digital tools and trainings to help expand their businesses.
“I have seen other models in my work in the past,” Guzman said, “You’re incubating small businesses, either pursuing cyber or just small businesses and innovation and making sure that they’re cyber ready from day one.”
For more information about the SBA, visit www.sba.gov.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering education in Columbia County and business-related topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
