Why Cybersecurity Matters for Your Business
There is a saying that goes: “No business is too small to be hacked”.
Every day, businesses of all shapes and sizes around the globe are exposed to a wide range of cyber security risks. Unfortunately, for many companies, the need for robust cyber security practices isn’t always seen as a priority. That’s mainly because consequences of leaving systems vulnerable are not properly explained to business owners, who are ultimately in control of monetary resources needed to close the security holes. In my opinion, it is cyber security team’s responsibility to convince the business to allocate necessary budget to addressing security problems. When businesses understand the damage resulting from a breach or other form of attack, they often become more willing to invest in cyber security solutions. In this blog post, I will describe potential losses caused by security incidents from a business perspective and highlight the reasons why companies should invest more to strengthen their cyber security posture.
How you might suffer
The business will always ask this question before allocating money to a solution: “how can I suffer from not solving this problem?”. Let’s take a look.
Money theft
Although all other scenarios can eventually be translated into money, this one is about unauthorized people stealing money due to a vulnerability in company systems or insider threat. For example, there is a common vulnerability in shopping applications where hackers can buy how many products they want without paying even a single dollar, or make payments using someone else’s card. Or, a malicious employee having unnecessary access to critical systems can transfer the money to his account due to gaps in access control policy. There has been witnessed endless cases of security breaches where hackers stole millions of dollars from organizations and even make them go bankrupt.
Loss of availability
As a result of a cyber attack, systems can go down and stop functioning. A common example of such attacks is Denial of Service (DoS), where a target system is bombarded with too many requests it can’t handle at the same time and eventually stops working. Another form of DoS would be exploiting a vulnerability in an application to block all user accounts and prevent them from using the app. Hackers can also gain code execution in your system and shut it down. All of these eventually mean that customers will not be able to use your services and bring revenue into your pockets.
Money can also be lost due to not meeting SLA requirements. Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a document that outlines the levels of service a customer should expect to receive and contains penalties for when that level isn’t met. A business faces serious financial losses if it is not able to maintain the uptime or availability promised in the SLA.
Data leak
Data is the most valuable asset for any business, and a data leak can have disastrous effects on an organisation. Hackers know this and attempt to exfiltrate data with the intent to disrupt operations, steal confidential information, or even blackmail organisations. Examples of sensitive data include but are not limited to:
- Customer data
- Employee records
- Product designs
- Source codes
- Vulnerability reports
- Sales records and customer lists
- Marketing plans
- Business partner information (including contracts and confidential agreements).
Disclosure of any of these can violate business objectives and result in the loss of considerable value. Examples:
Customer data can be sold in black market, used to log into user accounts, or to conduct phishing attacks. Such cases might have impacts varying from reputational to financial.
Hackers can locate vulnerabilities more easily if they obtain source code. Or, they can demand ransom in return for not publishing it online.
Competitors can steal product designs, source codes, strategic plans which play key role in success of the company.
Loss of reputation
Trust is probably the most critical factor for a company’s success in competitive market. Both customers and business partners need to know that their data and services are in safe hands. Having weak cyber security defenses adversely affects the decision of potential shareholders and stakeholders to work with a company, thereby causing it fall behind competitors.
Regulatory fines
If a company’s systems fail to meet security standards imposed by the government or other regulatory bodies, they may have to pay fines of hundreds or thousands of dollars which could be prevented by purchasing a much cheaper security solution. For example, the cost of not complying with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is up to €20 million or 4% of organisation’s global annual turnover. Another example is PCI/DSS, which enforces certain security standards to be met by companies storing, processing, transmitting credit card information. Failure to be PCI-compliant may result in monetary fines ranging from $5000 to $100,000 a month.
Conclusion
By now it should be clear that cyber security affects businesses’ bottom line in direct or indirect ways. It can have severe financial, legal, reputational and operational consequences in the short and long term. Industry statistics indicate that the cost of damages caused by cyber attacks is on the rise and there are still too many vulnerable organisations with inadequate security systems or procedures. That’s why businesses should take cyber security more seriously today and start thinking about it as not just an investment, but rather a precursor for growth.
Thanks for reading. Take action today to stay one step ahead of hackers!