Cyber Security Risk: What would it cost if your company could not work for one day?

Cyber security risk is a problem all companies face, from large corporations to small, independent businesses. But cyber security is much more than a simple IT issue, it can have a huge impact on your revenue…and reputation.

Have you ever thought about what you could lose if your business were to go offline from a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, or if your employees could not work on files after they have been hacked into and encrypted? What would just one single day of not being able to work cost your company?

You would not leave your house or your car before locking it first, so why not protect the most important aspect of your business- the money making. Cyber security should not be thought of as another chunk out of the budget, but an essential tool to protect the core of the business. Cyber security and revenue really do go hand in hand.

Many companies, particularly small businesses, and SME’s, see cyber security risk as something that may or may not happen to them, perhaps not considering the full implications of what a cyber attack would have on their organisation.

Businesses no matter the size are at a risk of all kinds of cyber threats from phishing attacks (the number one and most common cyber attack), ransomware attacks, DDoS threats, malware attacks and more. These cyber threats are ever-growing and are always being developed to become even more sophisticated. It is vital that whatever the size of your organisation, cyber security risk is taken into account and taken seriously. But how do we do this?

How businesses can calculate the risks

A cyber security risk assessment is a vital start for any business looking to purchase cyber security. Before you know which solutions will work for your company, you must first assess the risks. Every organisation should individually access their own risks, as this of course will vary from business to business. The Gov website has more information here.

By looking at the risks and performing a security assessment, you can determine the strengths and weaknesses of your systems, any weakness or vulnerability holes in your systems and how effective your current cyber security plan is working. From here, you will be in a better position to implement practical solutions in the right areas.

When calculating the cost of potential cyber security solutions, you should ask yourself what it would cost if your company went down for just one day. What would you lose in sales, revenue, potential new customers, even reputation? Work this out, and you may find that the cost of a single day is the same or greater than the yearly cost of cyber security protection. Those not willing to invest in the right cyber security solutions are taking a huge risk, particularly for SME’s who often find it hard to even recover at all from a cyber incident.

When completing a cyber security risk assessment, you need to identify the main cyber threats to your company. Most businesses all have the potential to be a victim of common cyber attacks, such as phishing, malware and ransomware attacks, but some organisations may be more likely to face other types of attack. For example, a government organisation may be at extra risk from cyber espionage or the healthcare industry may be at risk of advanced domain hijacking or DDoS attacks.

Once you have a list of the most vulnerable threats, you will need to determinate how each of those attacks would affect your business.

• If your files were encrypted in a ransomware attack, would you have backups of that data?
• And what would the implications be if any sensitive files were to be uploaded to the dark web?
• How would you deal with data protection laws?
• If hackers were able to take your ecommerce site offline for a day, or even a few hours, what would you gain to lose from loss of sales?
• If any of your machines are physically damaged, what would the costs be to replace them?
• How will you regain trust back in any customers who have lost faith in the reputability of your organisation?
• Do you have a recovery plan for a data breach, do your staff know what to do in the event of an attack?

These are all questions which will need to be answered. Once you have an idea of the threats to your business and how they will affect you, you can start to determine the right solutions to protect against each threat. Order the threat list in terms of the highest priority or threat level, to the lowest, putting security in place for the biggest threats first.

How a cyber security risk assessment can help

The biggest benefit, other that being protected from cyber threats, is the long term cost for an all-round cyber plan. The cost of cyber security will likely be lower than the cost of recovering from an attack. Applying a risk reduction point of view can help protect your businesses revenue and most valuable assets.

A complete cyber plan will protect your organisation against data breaches, comply with data protection regulations, prevent the loss of sensitive files, and help prevent malicious activity from entering your network. If you think that the cost of an annual cyber subscription may be the same as a day’s revenue, then it is really a no brainer.

At Cube Cyber, we can help both SME’s and large corporations come up with a complete cyber protection plan. We do all the hard work, finding the vulnerabilities in your systems, implementing advanced cyber solutions, and then monitoring and reporting back to you.

For any questions or details, please ask one of our cyber experts via our website.