There is a relentless range of cybersecurity threats facing small businesses every day. As attacks are becoming increasingly more robust and automated, hundreds of companies can easily be targeted at a single moment. Without the correct security measures in place, the consequences of a data breach can become costly. A recent report released by IBM shows businesses with less than 500 employees suffer a loss on average of $2.5 million per attack and are at a 29.6% chance of experiencing a data breach in the next 24 months.
The cost of damage control can be devastating for a small business. We’ll cover some other examples that show you why it is crucial to keep your business secure from cybercriminals along with the loss of revenue.
Loss of Revenue
Most ransomware attacks end up with a business paying money to regain their data. Studies show that some companies even experience a 20% loss due to these issues. Also, as the system may be down, that would make customers look for services elsewhere. This attack alone can cost the business a lot.
Bad reputation
Most of us value our privacy. Customers too appreciate the fact that businesses keep their credentials and personal information confidential. However, once their data is breached, many of them lose faith in the company. That kind of reputation is severely damaging and chases away clients, potentially crippling a business.
Loss of intellectual property
While a bad reputation may be devastating, losing designs, strategies, and ideas may be more catastrophic. This stolen information can quickly get into rival companies’ hands, implementing the stolen ideas as their own. Years of time and money spent investing in product development can be gone forever, hurting more than just the business but the people behind the product as well.
Legal Costs and Regulatory Fines
On the surface, ransomware attacks are seen to be the only monetary cost-related data breach. However, in most cases, these cyber-attacks bring into fruition other hidden costs. Privacy breaches listed in guidelines and agreements can result in the company being sued or fined, translating into vast amounts of additional expenses on top of the ransom demand.
For businesses, large or small, a cybersecurity threat is practically inevitable. The importance of understanding the possibilities around a cyber-attack can help a company to do more to minimize the adverse effects of a breach. Implementing best security and encryption practices as well as employee training is a company’s best bet in curving a potential attack.
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