This is a guest article written by Sophia Young who recently quit a non-writing job to tell stories and paint the world through her words. Sophia writes about business trends, sustainable marketing, travel and fashion.
Article Contents
You may have noticed that businesses nowadays are doubling down on their cybersecurity measures. There’s a very good reason for this, and it’s all in the data.
One thing we know about cybercrime is that it will not stop anytime soon. In Australia alone, the Australian Cyber Security Centre received almost 76,000 reports of cybercrime over the 2021—2022 financial year. That’s an increase of nearly 13% from the previous financial year!
An even more shocking statistic is that 60% of Australian SMEs don’t survive a data breach or cyberattack. Furthermore, the average cost per cybercrime report has increased to more than $39,000 for small enterprises, $88,000 for medium-sized businesses, and more than $62,000 for major corporations. What we can learn from these numbers is that companies should never take cybersecurity lightly.
Whether you’re operating a growing mom-and-pop shop or already scaling your business to international levels, below are some compelling reasons why cyber safety and security should be one of your top priorities today.
While primarily initiated for financial gain, the motivations for cyber assaults can be as varied as the perpetrators themselves. However, whether they are industrial spies, hacktivists, or cybercriminals, these bad actors all have one thing in common: they’re becoming quicker, more clever, and more covert with their attacks.
The answer to this? A strong cyber security posture, of course! This can assist your company in identifying and responding to the techniques, tools, and entry points being exploited, such as:
What’s a cybersecurity system’s weakest link? Humans.
Insider threats can originate from current or former employees, third-party vendors, or even trusted partners, and they can be accidental, negligent, or downright malicious. Aside from these, internal threats can also stem from the following:
There’s good news, though! By proactively monitoring networks and managing access, these threats can be identified and dealt with before they become costly incidents.
If your company’s data is stolen, sensitive information from clients and employees may end up in the wrong hands. These situations always end up disastrous for the business, often resulting in harsh penalties and strict legislation. Once this happens, the law will make you accountable for failing to take cybersecurity precautions.
In the case of hacking and theft, recovering data can be pretty expensive in terms of your time and money. When left unresolved, this can cause enormous business deficits and even drive them to bankruptcy.
These significant monetary losses would be impossible to recover from and could only be avoided through cybersecurity. You can start small by preventing ransomware from corrupting important files and working your way up.
One of the ways you can ensure customer retention is by strengthening brand loyalty. However, this will be difficult if your business experiences data breaches or any other kind of cyberattack. This will hit your reputation the hardest.
While competitors strive to win over the customer’s trust, an organisation dealing with cybersecurity issues might lag. As a result, the trust you’ve built with your customers may weaken.
You can flip these situations around with robust cybersecurity measures. Technologies like network security and cloud security can strengthen authentication, which can pave the way for future projects and expansions.
The tricky thing about technology is that, as it advances, so do the ways for cybercriminals to breach data.
Viruses will have adverse effects on networks, operations, and workflows, which will lower overall productivity. As a result, your company will experience downtime, bringing your operations to a standstill.
One of the best benefits of cybersecurity is increased business productivity through virus scanning, enhanced firewalls, and automatic backups. To maintain maximum productivity, educate your employees about email phishing, scams, suspicious links, and other questionable activity.
SMEs often host their website. So, if your system ever gets compromised, your website will also crash.
This may result in a lengthy website loading time, which will annoy your customers and cause revenue loss, missed opportunities for communication and transactions, and decreased confidence.
Cybersecurity guarantees defence against unexpected damages and protects long-term accessibility.
One significant reason why cybersecurity is so crucial to growing your business is that it solidifies trust and credibility among your customers.
Keep in mind that it’s easy for customers to switch to competing businesses if they see even just one wrong move. But if you have a track record of protecting customer and business information, your customer base is bound to grow.
Customers are becoming more and more cautious about data malpractices. So if you’re after long-term client relationships, make sure to create solid data privacy practices.
At this point, cyber security is not an option. It is a necessity and a responsibility. Having cybersecurity policies and procedures in place shields your business, employees, and customers from cyber-attacks.
While there is no way to completely protect against cyber threats, taking a proactive approach can greatly assist in mitigating risks and safeguarding valuable data.
