Did you know that aside from being a preventive measure to curb the multitude of damages caused by a cyberattack, a solid cybersecurity plan can help your business flourish?
Cybersecurity for protection
First, let’s take a quick look at the stats that indicate why your business requires comprehensive security solutions: There are nearly 4,000 cyberattacks a day. 62% of all attacks are aimed at small and medium businesses. 78% of those businesses have no cyberattack response plan.
These are pretty frightening numbers, which lead to one of the most shocking facts of all: 60% of all small and medium businesses close their doors within 6 months of a breach. [NOTE: Since this blog was posted, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has said that this "third-party 2011 statistic...was not generated from NCSA research, and we cannot verify its original source." We hope, however, that the rest of this blog is still helpful and informative.)
Here’s why.
A cyberattack:
- Costs money – Lots of money. On average, $400,000 for SMBs, for legal fees, regulatory fines, remediation costs, business disruption, the cost of notifying customers, and the list goes on. Now, imagine what that sum could have been used for instead – R&D, new customer programs and services, advertising, growth and expansion – and it’s truly disheartening.
- Destroys reputation and client trust – With competition as fierce as it’s ever been, especially in manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services, reputation is everything – and that reputation must be aggressively and systematically maintained, day in and day out. If you suffer a breach, your clients are pretty much guaranteed to lose confidence in your company and run to your more prudent and well-protected competition.
- Could shut down your business for a period of time – If your company’s IT system is wiped out by a cyberattack, it could take weeks or even months to restore your information. Consider the damage the Robbinhood attack did to the city of Baltimore this past May – real estate transactions were done by hand and the city had zero email service for two weeks – and you get an idea of the damage hackers can do to your SMB.
For these reasons, Avalon Cyber strongly encourages our clients to be proactive, rather than reactive and take precautions like vulnerability assessments and having an incident response plan prepared. We promise that the cost invested in your business upfront to prevent an attack is far more affordable than the high-price ticket, and potentially irreversible damage to your reputation, associated with the aftereffects of a breach.
Cybersecurity for growth
“Okay,” you may be thinking, “So I understand why I should take security measures to prevent an attack. But how in the world can a cybersecurity strategy help my business grow?”
We’re glad you asked (or at least that you may be thinking this).
Here’s how a cybersecurity plan can boost your company’s growth:
- Competitive advantage – Vodafone’s Cyber Ready Barometer 2018 found that only one in four businesses globally is considered “cyber ready.” In addition to this, many risk-adverse vendors only want to bring on a new partner that already has cybersecurity programs in place. So make sure you’re a part of the 25 percent and invest in a solid cybersecurity program. Then, by advertising your security plan as part of your compendium of strategic assets to partners and potential clients, you will likely see a significant increase in growth opportunities.
- Innovation – According to a Cisco Report, 71 percent of executives polled believe that cybersecurity concerns impede company innovations, and nearly 40 percent of businesses shut down mission-critical initiatives due to cybersecurity issues. By ensuring that your business’s data and digital resources, both present and future, are safe from attack via a strong cybersecurity plan, you create confidence within your enterprise, and provide a secure launchpad for new ideas, products, and services.
- Improved collaboration – Information Week asserts that due to the digital interconnectedness of businesses today and the need for collaboration between several entities, the more complete and agile a business’s cybersecurity policies, the more likely that business is to attract highly-desirable partners.
By staying ahead of the pack and putting the best cybersecurity strategy in place, you’re telling your clients that you’re a smart, safe and savvy partner, who fully understands the importance of money, reputation, and time – for both your own company, as well as theirs.
So stop thinking of cybersecurity as just a preventative necessity and realize that having a quality cybersecurity strategy in place can help position your company for infinite growth.
Request a demo of our KnightVision MDR service to identify and shut down threats to your business’s network quickly and efficiently.