Phishing and ransomware remain the top two most popular methods for hackers. Unfortunately, there has been an increase in a lack of transparency in breach notices at both the organization and government level that, if it continues, could lead to a significant impact on individuals.
But who do these breaches really affect? Everyone. From business to healthcare, education to financial services, manufacturing to the public sector, data breaches – whether by malicious parties or ignorant users – are a threat to your business.
Data Breaches Impact Your Business – But How?
Financial
Certainly, there are both immediate – and hidden – financial costs to a data breach. A breached business needs to repay any stolen funds, compensate customers, and suffer a share value loss. A smart organization will also use this as the drive to develop data security and disaster recovery strategies, which requires financial investment.
Hidden costs, such as fines, public relations, legal fees, and regulatory punitive measures, may also lie in wait. Organizations affected by data breaches may be fined, especially if data is sensitive (PII, PHI). In the US, breached businesses are often the subject of lawsuits. In 2019, Equifax – which exposed over 143 million user accounts – was fined over $700 million (though whether that was significant is a matter of debate).
Reputation
Customer loyalty and trust take a nose dive after a data breach. Your customers value their privacy, and they will perceive a data breach as a lack of respect for their data and privacy. Your business is trusted to be customer-first and focused on people over profits. 46% of organizations say they suffered damage to their reputation and brand value as a result of a breach.
The potential also exists for internal-only communications to be released as the result of a data breach. Imagine how your customers may perceive hastily-sent email exchanges or archaic sales’ records.
Intellectual Property
The product blueprints, business strategies, and engineered solutions you have are some of your most valuable assets. Your trade secrets are what give you an advantage over your competitors, and some may not hesitate to use breached intellectual property against you.
Protect Your Business Before You Are Breached
You need security expertise that understands the threats to your business, and a disaster recovery strategy that accounts for cyber resiliency and data loss. Our experts will help you do the following:
Plan: take the time to fully understand your security priorities and identify solutions custom-fit to your needs.
Discover: assess your current security posture and reviews configurations to create a strategic security solution that meets your business objectives.
Remediate: implement appropriate security controls and review policies and procedures while hardening your security architecture to protect against the most relevant threats to your business.
Test: break in, test, and infiltrate the layers of security to identify additional gaps and validate security controls.
Roadmap: create a strategy that prepares you for tomorrow’s threats. This hardened security framework helps you respond proactively to pervasive market rises.
Manage: ensure the continued management of your security posture so you are confident you can respond to the most imminent threats.
Hire Professionals To Protect Your Organization
Public and private organizations are especially at risk of cyberattacks. Managing the cyber security for your organization internally can become tedious and expensive, so consider hiring cybersecurity services to do it for you.
Letting an agency handle your cyber security will guarantee the most safety, and they can also help you recover quickly from a cyberattack if one does happen. Focus on the day to day operations of your organization and leave cyber security to the professionals to make sure you’re guarded on all fronts.
Stay Safe Online
While cyberattacks are happening more and more often, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use all of the advanced technology available to us. Simply take steps to protect yourself using the different types of cyber security, and when necessary, bring in the CB Tech Group experts to help.
