With remote work as the new norm, employees are more comfortable sharing personal and private information online than ever before.
This has majorly increased the likelihood of a data breach for many businesses. In fact, this year Varonis shared that remote workers are the top target for cyber crimes.
Data breaches can be detrimental to businesses of all sizes. Yet small businesses often lack the resources they need to protect against breaches, leading to fewer clients, a loss of significant data, and a hurt reputation when an attack does strike.
Here, we look at the potential impact of a data breach on your business and what you can do to reduce the risk.
Financial Loss
According to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million. The same report shows that it takes an average of 280 days to identify and contain a breach.
For many small businesses, a breach of this size is too significant for the company to overcome.
Again, the difference of impact on a small and large business depends on the number of resources that each company has to end the data breach. A small company often will not have the resources on their own to handle the situation in-house, leading to further financial loss.
Damaged Reputation
A data breach can lead to a decrease in trust from clients and harm the business’s reputation.
A loss of reputation can harm a business in multiple ways.
- Loss of current clients if the data breach affects their private information. If the attack originated from company negligence, your current customers aren’t likely to stay.
- Loss of potential clients if the data breach becomes public knowledge (and often companies are required to announce breaches publicly).
- Negative impact on investors and shareholders. If shareholders and investors lose faith in the company’s security, it can be detrimental when raising funds to further the business.
How to Reduce the Impact of a Data Breach:
The best way to mitigate the impact of a data breach is to be proactive.
Here are some ways you can help safeguard your business from data breaches and cybersecurity threats.
Reduce Your Company’s Data Footprint
Organizations should reduce the amount of data they have access to by eliminating unnecessary databases and files, encrypting sensitive data, and deleting unneeded information from web servers,.
Educate Your Employees
If your employees can understand the importance of cybersecurity, as well as the steps they can do to prevent data leaks, they will be able to make wiser decisions in how they handle company information.
Work With A Reliable Cybersecurity Company
Implementing a robust security program can save your business millions of dollars. If you think your company may be vulnerable to data breaches, make sure you partner with a company that can provide reliable cybersecurity services to protect you from data breaches.
Syzygy 3 Can Keep Your Data Safe
Regardless of size, all businesses should take a proactive approach to secure their information by implementing security solutions and consulting with cybersecurity experts.
At Syzygy 3, our experienced team works hard to keep companies’ information safe, offering vulnerability assessments and in-depth security options.Contact Syzygy 3 to discuss what we can do to optimize your business’s cybersecurity.
