The financial impact of cyberattacks on a business with a fully established IT support system can be significant even with a proper data security plan. For small businesses without a proper cybersecurity plan, unplanned downtime and lost productivity can be fatal. Data breaches result in lost revenue and customer data, possibly amounting to millions of dollars.
Cybercrime is a constant threat. Keep reading to learn the cost of a data breach in today’s technology landscape.
What Is the Cost of a Data Breach?
A security breach is any incident through which a bad actor gains unauthorized access to your valuable data. These events can occur due to independent, external bad actors or internal interference. The most common data breaches are unintentional. 25% of total breaches so far in 2022 have resulted from social engineering attacks—cybercrime that tricks your employees into giving up credentials by sending messages that appear to be from a legitimate source.
Human error and bad actors have a massive negative effect on your company’s data security, leading to lost business, revenue, and reputation. Depending on the scenario, there are three primary data breach categories:
What Is a Data Breach?
A security breach is any incident through which a bad actor gains unauthorized access to your valuable data. These events can occur due to independent, external bad actors or internal interference. The most common data breaches are unintentional. 25% of total breaches so far in 2022 have resulted from social engineering attacks—cybercrime that tricks your employees into giving up credentials by sending messages that appear to be from a legitimate source.
Human error and bad actors have a massive negative effect on your company’s data security, leading to lost business, revenue, and reputation. Depending on the scenario, there are three primary data breach categories:
Integrity Breach
This security event happens when an internal or external actor changes confidential customer data on purpose or by accident. Because no data goes missing, these security breaches take longer to catch than most.
Confidentiality Breach
These breaches occur when a bad actor acquires login credentials or confidential information by accident.
Availability Breach
You experience an availability breach when a cybercriminal compromises your firewall or endpoint security measures with an attack. Hackers can manipulate your essential data when spyware or ransomware enters your network.
Understanding the Financial Impact of Cyberattacks on Businesses
The ever-changing technology landscape has much to do with the recent rise in data breach costs. As companies are forced to move into the cloud to accommodate the remote work rush inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations struggle to lay the foundation to support a remote work structure. 60% of companies surveyed in the IBM 2021 data breach report adopted the cloud to avoid going out of business.
Between setting up a new technology framework and keeping operations up and running, business owners had to deal with increased interest from hackers and other bad actors. It can take months to confirm a data breach, and with resources stretched thin, it’s natural for small and medium-sized organizations to feel outmatched.
Who Are the Most at Risk for a Cyberattack?
Healthcare, financial, pharmaceutical, energy, and technology organizations experienced the highest average data breach cost, ranging from $4.65 to $9.29 million. Customer personally identifiable information (PII) was the most common stolen record at 44%.
Outside of lost revenue, a data breach can also cause reputational damage, as customers who entrusted your staff to protect their information have shaken faith in your data security. When a security breach occurs, a business that doesn’t have proper in-house or managed security tools faces potentially massive repercussions.
How To Reduce the Cost of a Cyberattack
Your first defense against a data breach is education. Investing in security awareness and arming your employees with the tools and knowledge they need to prevent a bad actor from stealing credentials and other information is critical to your long-term security posture. Teach your staff the importance of creating hard-to-guess passwords and keeping login information confidential.
Purchasing up-to-date security tools also gives you an advantage. Research detection and response protocols and build a firm network security policy. Also, prepare a strong disaster recovery plan in the event of a security breach. While implementing cybersecurity tools is an excellent way to protect yourself against hackers, no strategy is perfect. Routinely backing up your data offsite ensures that even when a hacker compromises your network, you can cut unplanned downtime and recover quickly.
Prevent Downtime With First Class Connection
Your network security is essential. It’s a tall order for small businesses to build out a complete cybersecurity plan while overseeing daily operations. FCCC is your partner in data security. We provide a security team with the tools you need to ensure your protection. As a managed service provider (MSP), we address suspicious activity and improve your incident response processes to resolve security events quickly and completely.
Our mission is to reduce your operational costs and simplify your IT systems. Our solutions are scalable and designed to match your unique requirements. We align with your core business objectives and highlight a path to long-term security and success.
Ready to take your IT to the next level? Reach out today.
