Why Do Businesses Only Care About Cyber Security Once They Get Hacked?

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You know it’s an issue that should be right at the top of your agenda, but it can wait.

You’ve got an important project on the go now and all of your business’s efforts are focused on delivering it. Except the ransomware attack happens a couple of weeks before you finish it.

Now it’s on your agenda.

Every single case of ransomware we have seen has been entirely preventable, it just wasn’t a high enough priority.

It is now for the care agency that lost their entire accounts system.

It is now for the retail company that lost their warehouse stock system

It is now for the business who lost £18k in invoice fraud

It is now for the printing business, but it’s too late, they ceased trading.

These are all projects we have worked, with companies who suddenly want to take their cyber security seriously.‍

It will happen to you unless you put it to the top of your agenda. Now.

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We don’t need/cant afford to increase our technology budget

If we take small businesses as an example , sustainability and growth are key factors, certainly within a 5 year plan. Technology and security are often overlooked as an unnecessary expense, so they get put on a non-priority list and try to get by with the most basic setups possible.

It is often difficult to convince small businesses to invest their money into something that doesn’t on the surface of it, contribute  to a profit. However, if you suffered a cyber-attack  which resulted in downtime, reputational damage, not to mention the financial impact,  suddenly the extra security measures  become priceless.

Planning ahead will save you time and money in the long run, and cyber security is something your organisation should take seriously – sooner (like now) rather than later.

Think of it as insurance

We all pay insurance premiums, they are there to protect us. Sometimes it’s a legally forced policy and others are a chosen backup, so why not think this way when it comes to protecting your business, its reputation and revenue?

It’s already easy for hackers to get in to your systems, without you making it a walk in the park for them. Most cyber-attacks are not targeted at you, you’ve just made it so easy for them that they do. If you’re the one thinking ‘it won’t be me’ then you’re likely the next victim. You only hear in the headlines about the big companies that get hacked, but 58% of cyber-attack victims are small businesses.

Your ‘Human Firewall’

It isn’t just technology that cyber security covers, it’s (and most importantly for a small business we’d argue) the people within your business. Phishing attempts on your staff are the top threat to your business right now. You can have every technology solution in place to mitigate them, but there will always be a few that get through, and that’s all it takes for your business to come tumbling down.

Social engineering is another common one, companies must have strict policies and procedures in place to overcome such methods and be trained to spot anything suspicious.

A well-written information security policy addresses subjects such as password protection, software updates and access to web content, as well as procedural rules for giving access or sensitive information to other users.

Conclusion

Some businesses feel that taking the correct measures for their cyber security is something that can be addressed later down the line, if at all.

It isn’t until they suffer significant losses to data, downtime and revenue from a single breach, that they realise how important cyber security is, we see it far too often. With the significant rise in attacks, it is now time for businesses of all sizes to start taking cyber security seriously.

For more info and advice on protecting your business from cyber attacks, feel free to give us a call or send a message.