The Impact of Cyber Attacks on Businesses (you never imagined) and How to Prevent a Breach

Impacts of a Cyber Security Breach to a Company

Breaches are very costly to recover from. An organization will have many financial payments after a breach. A ransomware attack will require the organization to pay thousands or potentially millions of dollars to unencrypt your data. Investigating a breach is also very costly and disruptive. Then there are IT related costs to stop the bleeding and repair any damages.

When sensitive information is exposed, the organization must notify customers, suppliers or other parties involved. There maybe compensation involved, fines or legal issues to deal with. Plus there will be loss of revenue due to operational downtime. It could potentially take days or weeks of downtime to recover from an incident.

After an incident, clients will lose trust in your organization. The reputation damage will affect your organization for years to come. The cost of the breach, plus lost revenue may mean that an organization will downsize and lay off employees or potentially close the business entirely.

This is why we put so much emphasis on security training and being proactive in protecting your organization from cyber threats and breaches.

Costs of Cyber Attacks

Breaches are very costly to recover from. An organization will have many financial payments after a breach. A ransomware attack will require the organization to pay thousands or potentially millions of dollars to unencrypt your data. Investigating a breach is also very costly and disruptive. Then there are IT related costs to stop the bleeding and repair any damages.

When sensitive information is exposed, the organization must notify customers, suppliers or other parties involved. There maybe compensation involved, fines or legal issues to deal with. Plus there will be loss of revenue due to operational downtime. It could potentially take days or weeks of downtime to recover from an incident.

After an incident, clients will lose trust in your organization. The reputation damage will affect your organization for years to come. The cost of the breach, plus lost revenue may mean that an organization will downsize and lay off employees or potentially close the business entirely.

This is why we put so much emphasis on security training and being proactive in protecting your organization from cyber threats and breaches.

Cyber attacks often result in substantial financial loss arising from:

• theft of corporate sensitive information
• theft of financial information (eg bank details or payment card details)
• theft of money
• disruption to sales revenue
• cost of downtime and idle staff
• loss of clients or contracts
• costs to repair the network
• forensic costs to identify the source and criminal
• legal costs
• reputational damage

Trust is an essential element of customer relationships. Cyber attacks can damage your business reputation and erode the trust your customers have for you. This, in turn, could potentially lead to:

• loss of customers
• loss of sales
• reduction in profits

The effect of reputational damage can also impact on your suppliers, or affect relationships you may have with partners, investors and other third parties vested in your business.

How Are Employees Affected with Cyber Security Breaches

Imagine that you receive a large red popup on your computer screen with a message saying that your files have been encrypted and you must pay the ransom in untraceable Bitcoin to recover your files. The message has a countdown timer, forcing you to take action and pay the ransom before the timer runs out. What would you do?

While you’re contemplating, the ransomware infection is rapidly spreading to other computers on the network. You’re feeling nervous and stressed about the breach and have no idea what to do next because you’ve never been trained on how to deal with this type of incident.

Should you be in this situation, contact your IT department right away, along with anyone in management that should be aware of the breach. Be prepared to be available to explain what happen and answer any questions that may provide insight on the source of the attack.

Remember, we all make mistakes. You may feel responsible for the attack, but the reality is that it can happen to anyone. If you’ve never been trained on cybersecurity or your systems are not properly protected, then you should expect that eventually you will be dealing with this type of incident.

Take cybersecurity seriously and stay alert, slow down when you receive an email, text or phone call demanding immediate action. Stop and think before acting.

Watch the video below to learn tips on how to handle this type of situation.