In recent years, cybersecurity has become increasingly important to business operations. Companies of all sizes are realizing that when they don’t invest in a robust cybersecurity strategy, their business falls behind. But what does cybersecurity from a business perspective involve? In what tangible ways can it generate value for your organisation?
The cost of cyber-attacks is high, which is why identifying your cybersecurity risk areas and acting on them is a must. Offsetting costs is only one side of cybersecurity; the other is creating value. There are five ways security strategy can contribute to your business:
- Protect against threats
- Create a better decision-making environment
- Save time and cut costs
- Recover from disaster
- Provide deeper insight into your business
Protection Against Cyber Threats Grows Your Business
The goal of cybersecurity is to defend against cyber threats. This objective is closely related to the business’ goal of avoiding regulatory and legal troubles. Recent data breaches that exposed the sensitive data of millions of people are making customers question companies’ security policies. If your business takes security seriously, it will earn loyalty from customers and stakeholders.
Putting defences in place to counter cyber attackers also leads to growth and safeguards your company’s reputation. Allocating resources to an incident response plan is worthwhile when you consider the alternative – a sluggish reaction to a security breach that leaves customers disappointed and leads to financial and reputational damage. If you’re always spending time cleaning up messes rather than preventing them, your business will never expand.
Regular IT Risk Assessments Lead to Risk-Averse Decision-making
Cybersecurity, like all facets of IT systems, is not a "one and done" feature of your business. You should constantly monitor your systems for weak spots and apply regular patches and updates. Conducting frequent IT risk assessments also shows you how well your business is doing and where there is room for improvement.
When you make IT risk assessment part of your regular routine, it impacts how you run your business. You look at decisions through a security-focussed lens, considering what the IT implications of a new project or product will be. If you’re a small business that wants a risk-resilient strategy but doesn’t have the staff to dedicate to IT monitoring, you can outsource your cybersecurity needs to an IT support company. Some IT firms, like Amazing Support in Manchester (UK), specialise in this kind of cybersecurity strategy.
Managing Data Saves Time and Cuts Costs
Securing and protecting your data not only covers your company in a legal sense, it also improves efficiency. Enhancing data security will prevent more data breaches from occurring and refine data management processes. By optimising your data, you make it more searchable for your company’s employees, thereby cutting down on time they need to retrieve it and even avoiding hiring more staff.
Cybersecurity is not simply an added expense. The right processes will save you both time and money in the long run.
Reliable Backups Help You Recover from Disaster
Cybersecurity involves more than just stopping hackers. A secure business also implements backups and disaster recovery. When disaster strikes, your business should be prepared. As your business grows you’ll have more responsibilities and, as a result, more security risks. A dependable backup strategy is vital for mitigating these risks and securing your company’s data.
With at least three backups of your business data in different locations, as well as a secure cloud backup, you afford your organisation another layer of protection. Whether you outsource to an IT company or do it in-house, formulating a disaster recovery plan is vital to the growth of your business. When an incident arises, you can quickly launch your plan and restore your data with one of your backups. You minimise downtime and get operations up and running so the damage is limited.
Nuanced Targets Provide a Better Understanding of Your Business
Cybersecurity strategies require nuance. It’s for this reason that businesses have so often overlooked cybersecurity. It’s difficult to quantify results when success is the absence of cyber attacks or cyber threats. Designating business data as either secure or insecure isn’t practical because there’s too much middle ground. As a result of generalised metrics, companies haven’t seen the value of cybersecurity.
By identifying your core assets and building defences around them, you can handle incidents in a more versatile way. It’s also possible to quantify the response to cyber attacks, calculating the money you save by rolling out a speedy reaction that lowers business impact. Another way to measure cybersecurity that gives you better insight into your business is by comparison with other companies’ data breaches. By looking at others’ incidents, how they responded, and how much it cost them, you can prepare your own defences accordingly.
Final Thoughts
Cybersecurity is instrumental to modern business success. Not only is it a requirement, but it also creates value for your organisation. By implementing a sound cybersecurity policy, you can help your business grow.
Related Article: How Cyber Attacks Can Damage Your Business Value
This article was expertly crafted by David Share of Amazing Support, an IT Support Company in Manchester
