Last month I caught up with the brilliant Bharat Bhise HNA analysts and an absolute guru when it comes to cybersecurity. When I catch up with Bharat the stories that he tells me are both entertaining and scary as hell, and it always reminds me of the importance that people make sure that their computer systems are completely locked down with cybersecurity. Last month when I spoke to him we were discussing small businesses and hw hacking is on the rise amongst that community. Worryingly, a great many small businesses either have non-existent or completely outdated security software, which is a big cause for concern. If you do have a small business, here are the risks that you are running by not having cybersecurity.
Getting Hacked
Of course the biggest risk is that you get hacked, but I won’t insult your intelligence by assuming that you didn’t know that. The point here is not that it is possible that you get hacked, but that you have a very high probability of getting hacked, why? Because cybercriminals are now realizing that hacking a small business is like taking candy from a baby.
Finances
On average the cost of a hack to a medium sized business stands at anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000. Now as a small business the costs involved with repairing the damage that has been caused, the days of trade that you will lose and the implementation of new security software will of course be less than that of a medium sized business, but not by very much. Now let’s assume that it is going to set you back $8,000 to $10,000 if your business gets hacked, is that something that you can afford? High quality security software may set you back $200-$300 per year, which sounds the best deal to you?
Reputation Damage
If you think that the only damage which a hack will cause is the theft of some business information then you are wrong, think of the fact that you have all of your personal information of your staff on there as well as a wealth of personal information about your customers. Now if that falls into the wrong hands and the world knows that it happened because you didn’t have proper security in place, it will do terrible damage to your reputation. This can prevent you from bringing in new customers and your existing customers are likely to go elsewhere, not to mention what your staff may think.
Back to the Start
Think of it like this, if you don’t get security then you are infinitely more likely to be hacked, if you do get hacked then you will have to install security anyway in order to prevent a follow up attack, so in reality you may as well have installed the security straight out of the gate, to prevent any of this happening in the first place.
