Any business owner with an eye on the prize knows that achieving financial stability and growth comes through dedication to customer and employee satisfaction, constant innovation, and perseverance in uncertain times. However, some still don’t pay attention to a crucial factor that, if left unaddressed, can have a bustling business close-up shop for good overnight.
Decision-makers need to be aware of cybersecurity and actively promote and encourage it if they want the business to run smoothly. Why, though? And what steps can they take? Continue reading to find out.
The Diverse Costs of Cyber Attacks
Essentially, cyber attacks are setbacks. They’re preventable obstacles that prevent businesses from reaching their potential and optimum efficiency. Worse yet, simple financial losses are only one aspect of the fallout you’ll have to deal with.
First, let’s focus on finances since they’re the easiest to quantify. Globally, a data breach costs companies more than $4 million, and costs rise to as much as $9.5 million in the US. Billion-dollar enterprises might bear the brunt of this cost, but cyberattacks target startups and small businesses with the same ruthless efficiency. Many can’t take such a financial hit and fold within six months or less.
Attacks like ransomware can grind an entire business to a halt. Hospitals and businesses that deal in sensitive medical or personal information are more likely to pay to save lives and prevent lawsuits. Even if a business gets back access to infected files and systems, the downtime dealing with the matter can be devastating.
Having robust cybersecurity is increasingly becoming a legal matter as well. For example, businesses that handle Europeans’ personally identifiable information have to abide by the GDPR even if they operate from elsewhere. Legal developments, as well as growing industry-specific regulations governing data acquisition and storage, mean adequate cybersecurity is a necessity, not an option.
Finally, there’s the intangible but oh-so-palpable damage cyber threats wreak on businesses’ reputations. Vendors and partners shy away from companies with lax cybersecurity because they can become collateral victims. Data privacy and protection are gaining importance in forming customers’ purchasing decisions. Most have no qualms about dropping a company that mishandled their information and turning to more security-conscious competitors.
Top Cybersecurity Considerations
Building a company’s cyber defenses up is a group endeavor with a higher success rate if it starts from the top. Owners and C-level executives who are aware of the risks realize that cyber threat protection is a business expense that’s far easier to stomach than the alternative. Fostering a security-focused company culture will set everyone up for success as you take more concrete steps.
Integrating a company-wide password manager should be among the first. They help reduce the attack surface by replacing outdated, common, and reused passwords with unique alternatives for all existing and future business accounts regardless of employee count. Multifactor authentication comes included with the highly-regarded password managers and can protect accounts further.
A company’s cybersecurity hinges on employee awareness. Most breaches happen when people fall for phishing emails or disclose account information in other ways. Raising awareness and organizing cybersecurity training sessions will bring everyone up to speed and drastically reduce the risk factor of human error.
It’s also imperative to ensure all communication and data exchange channels, especially if your company practices work from home. Setting up a VPN will encrypt and secure any incoming connections, ensuring uninterrupted communication while protecting confidential or sensitive information from prying eyes. However, it’s important to select a reliable VPN provider. Sources like the VPN comparison table and customer testimonials come in handy when it’s time to subscribe to a service.
Access control is another necessary measure and is particularly effective against insider threats. Adopting a role-based hierarchy and zero-trust model will restrict top-level access to qualified personnel without hampering others’ work.
Conclusion
It’s not a question of if your company will come under threat from a cyberattack. Rather, it’s a matter of when. Taking matters seriously now and shoring your company’s defenses up ahead of time will turn a potentially bankruptcy-inducing catastrophe into a minor inconvenience.
