Most business professionals know about the danger of having important personal data stolen from unprotected technology. However, there is another aspect of cybersecurity breaches other than losing critical information. Financial losses due to cyber attacks should be worrisome for businesses. The top four areas of business that are affected by cybersecurity attacks are operations, finance, intellectual property, and reputation.Many small business owners and decision makers assume that their business is “too small” to be attacked by hackers. That is not true however. Small businesses account for more than half of U.S. sales which proves why they would be targeted in addition to the larger companies. 60% of SMBs who experience a data breach go out of business within six months of an attack.
WHY DOES IT MATTER TO A CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER?
The Cisco 2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark study showed that 53% of all cybersecurity attacks caused more than $500,000 in financial damages.
Most costs, 96% to 99% of the total costs from breaches, are “hidden” costs. These include loss of contract revenue, operational disruptions, customer relationships, and reputation damages.
From the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report, out of the businesses that were surveyed, 45 percent experienced downtime from attacks that lasted between 1 to 8 hours. There can be a substantial financial loss that can be caused from this large of employee downtime.
It is obvious to see now how finance is heavily interwoven with cybersecurity. This requires CFOs to be a part of the cybersecurity discussion within their businesses.
WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?
The initial money spent for high-quality managed IT solutions may seem unnecessary. However, if you compare the financial costs of cybersecurity threats and the cost of preventing those threats, it is a smart business move to invest in I.T. solutions.
Part of our service is to help protect your business from cybersecurity threats. These can include: internal or external attacks, loss of intellectual property, unauthorized access, loss of productivity, and monetary losses. A customer of Straight Edge Technology will receive I.T. consulting from service members who will plan with you what your technology goals are for your business, helpdesk services for any issues that may arise or questions you have, and remote network monitoring and maintenance. Our remote network monitoring allows us to proactively prevent network and workstation I.T. issues.
