Spending on cybersecurity is increasing by as much as $14 billion every year, and for good reason. In the digital age, there are many business models that rely entirely on their data, even though not every business protects its assets well enough.
Luckily, we no longer have to break the bank in order to protect our most valuable assets. Let’s talk about the benefits of investing in Cybersecurity.
1. Investing in Cybersecurity Offers a High ROI Potential
Major cybersecurity breaches and even common cyber threats pose serious financial risks to large corporations, and particularly to small businesses. If you even passively watched the news in the last year, you probably didn’t miss the Colonial Pipeline breach, which cost the company $5 million just in ransom, and far more in lost business.
That one single breach affected their company and the entire economy of the United States, so imagine what it could have done to a small or medium-sized business. This is far from the only way that cybersecurity services offer a return on investment, but we’ll get into that.
However, because of this, there really is no limit to the potential ROI of cybersecurity investments, as it could easily be the investment that saves your company from devastation.
2. Disaster Recovery
Now that you know how long it can take for a company to notice a breach, let alone isolate it, you can see why having a disaster recovery plan in place is so important.
In the digital age, people can steal a business’s entire property without ever entering their establishment. If that happened to your company, and if all of your data and files suddenly went missing, what would you do?
If you don’t have an answer for that right now, you need one. That’s another valuable benefit offered by cybersecurity services that often go overlooked. Even the best cybersecurity teams at Google, Facebook, or the US government can’t guarantee 100% protection, so having a clear path forward in the event of a disaster is important.
This recovery will include how to recover your data, how to isolate a breach, how to build back what is lost, how to ensure that your customers are protected, and how to move forward as a company.
3. Saves Face
Would you want to be the business owner who has to go on television or to the press and tell all of your customers that their credit card information was stolen?
Even worse, would you want to be the one to tell them that it was stolen over a year ago? Well, the average business takes 191 days to even notice that a data breach has occurred, which does not bode well for company appearance.
The best way to avoid this is to have the right systems and experts in place to prevent a breach from occurring, as well as discovering and isolating one as soon as possible if they are to occur.
4. Cloud Systems and Remote Desktop
One of the best ways to prevent a breach from being a disaster is to have all of your data backed up. The safest place to backup your data is in the right cloud storage systems.
The right cybersecurity team will offer you the latest cloud storage technology to ensure that you can access all of your data from anywhere. That means that not only will your data be permanently backed up and not subject to water damage like a hard drive, but you will also be able to access this information from anywhere.
That means that, with cloud-based remote desktop technology, you can open up your work computer from home or on a business trip and pick up exactly where you left off. Offering this to your staff who travel for work will also have positive effects on productivity without increasing the risk of a breach.
Not every cybersecurity service will offer remote desktop services, so if you’re looking to incorporate them into your business model, make sure that you run the technology you want to use by your cybersecurity team to make sure it is up to their standards.
5. Secure File Sharing
The secret service knows that the president is most vulnerable to an attack while they are traveling, so they take extra care for protection, right? Well, your data is the most vulnerable when it is traveling between computers, through emails, or anywhere else.
Cybersecurity teams know this and they make sure to offer the best, up-to-date technology for secure file sharing and dropping. This allows your team to effectively communicate with each other, share work-related files, comply with HIPAA requirements (for the healthcare industry), and more without having to worry about a potential breach.
6. Network Security
Your network acts as the heart of your cybersecurity strategy. All of your company data runs through the network and there are too many moving parts within it to ensure that it’s always protected.
For example, your network may be perfectly secure, but your employee’s phones may not be. Cyber teams will address this by either adding a guest network for your staff to use on their personal devices or by ensuring that unsecured devices are not on your company’s WiFi.
The right team will ensure that your network is secure only to those who are meant to have access to it, and they will work to minimize the risk of breaches or other issues.
7. Training Your Staff
Ensuring uniformity in the practices of your staff is very critical to preventing a disaster. For example, locking staff out every few months and prompting them to change their passwords will ensure that any breaches of their accounts will be limited.
Making sure that employees are following the right protocols is the only way to ensure that your company data is being protected. You and your IT team may do everything right, but one slip from an employee can have devastating effects.
The right team will establish compliance requirements for your staff and discuss best practices with them to minimize your overall cyber risk as a company. This is especially important as employees are returning to the workplace, which creates new cybersecurity concerns and challenges.
8. Updated Software
Having the right cybersecurity software for businesses is crucial, and it changes all the time. The right team will make sure that your web browsers and antimalware software are always up to date and operating efficiently.
These new updates and new technologies are always the best way to prevent common cyber threats, as the technology adapts to minimize their risks over time.
9. Increase Productivity
If your employees are confident in the cybersecurity protocols and procedures and have the right technology at their disposal, they won’t be wasting time trying to figure out the “right way” to do things. The right cybersecurity services will allow your staff to focus on getting their jobs done without any fear.
Also, having up-to-date software at all times makes sure that employees are utilizing the latest technology that works to increase efficiency, solve problems, and make their jobs a little easier.
10. Building Trust
Let’s be honest and admit that cybersecurity is not always at the top of the list of company priorities. However, if consumers had their wish, it would be.
Customers and employees place a lot of value on companies that protect their sensitive data. If your business is dealing with medical records, social security numbers, credit cards, or any other sensitive data, then it’s important that you provide your valued customers with the confidence they need in your company.
This goes a long way toward establishing brand trust and loyalty. Customer retention is an enormous part of the business world that is often overlooked, but it can keep your company afloat for years to come.
Again, you don’t want to be the one who has to tell all of your customers that you let them down. One single breach can devastate thousands of people’s lives and your entire company. This makes it pretty clear that a small investment into cybersecurity services more than pays off in the long run.
Why Wait?
The sooner you start investing in cybersecurity, the less time your company’s valuable data stays exposed to a potential breach. The best thing you can do as a business owner is to protect your company’s bottom line and start protecting your business data today. Stay up to date with our latest cybersecurity news and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions!