Proactively investing in and maintaining a strong cybersecurity defense can protect a company’s brand and reputation.
It’s surprising that cybersecurity is not at the forefront of the minds of c-suite executives running small and mid-sized companies. Perhaps these executives believe that data breaches only happen in large companies. However, cyberattacks can happen to any company at any time. In fact, smaller companies may be more of a target because hackers realize these organizations often lack sufficient expertise to deal with cyberattacks. Failing to secure a company’s cybersecurity is simply not an option anymore. It needs to be a priority.
Today’s Reality
The cybersecurity attacks on large organizations, such as Capital One and Equifax, are in the news frequently. These attacks often result in significant data breaches and ransomware assaults. Rectifying a cyberattack is an expensive task for any size organization in terms of effort, time, and cost, depending on the degree of damage. But the attacks on smaller organizations are increasing, costing an average of $1.1 million per attack. Cyberattacks do not always succeed in penetrating the network of a company, but if they do, the result of one attack can be catastrophic, potentially forcing the organization to cease operations due to the lasting financial damage.
