3 Reasons to Invest in Cyber Security

Cyber-attacks are on the rise. All businesses, despite their size, are at risk. Therefore, protecting your business from these attacks should be your top priority.

We all know why we need anti-virus software and firewalls in our machines. The two present a layer of defense against malicious hackers trying to access our data. People who are new to the IT industry may not understand the importance of cybersecurity. Read on to find the reasons why you should invest in cybersecurity.

Mitigate Against Losses

Businesses use financial losses to measure the scale of a cyber-attack. For instance, 63% of all the respondents in a 2019 study indicated that cyber-attacks led to losses in India. Global statistics show that cyber-attacks will cost more than $6 trillion by the end of the year. But that’s not all!

Other than financial losses, cybercrime does more damage. For instance, 55% of companies lose their sensitive data including intellectual property. Another 49% suffers reputational damage while 47% experience a disruption to their business processes.

For example, Sony suffered a massive attack on both its Sony Pictures and PlayStation Network. The two hacks affected over 77 million users resulting in a loss of $ 24 Billion. The Sony Pictures hack was more devastating as it resulted in the leakage of salary data, security numbers, unreleased movies, and other private data. If you don’t want to suffer this loss, invest in cybersecurity today.

Increased Use of Cloud Data

As the business grows, the amount of data generated also increases. Even small and medium business enterprises also generate a lot of data like sales reports, personnel files, marketing plans, and client details. For ease of operation, these businesses store their data on the cloud. Most cloud providers employ their security layer against attacks. However, the data is still available online and therefore at risk of security breaches.

The threat is even high in organizations like financial institutions, government entities, and fine corps. The amount of sensitive information here is enormous, the tiniest breach here could result in massive losses and put many people at risk. Reach out to an IT consultancy to guide you through this process.

Avoid Non-Compliance Law Suits

Businesses in Healthcare and Banking sectors have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their customer’s data and sensitive information. Therefore, a cyberattack may lead to them being non-compliant.

Loss of customer information is disastrous to such companies. The aggrieved customers may file lawsuits against the company. The legal costs and settlement for these cases are very expensive. For example, a 2014 attack on a US retail store saw the loss of 70 million credit and debit card records. The result, 140 lawsuits and a $10 million settling amount for these cases.

Conclusion

The number of cyberattacks and crimes is on the rise. The losses from these attacks are enormous. According to researchers, a total of 6 trillion dollars will be lost every year to this vice. Even worse, the attacks target all types of businesses in different industries. If you want your business to be safe; invest in cybersecurity.