Cybercrime is a trend that only increases over time. As cybercriminals continue to orchestrate sophisticated attacks, they have small businesses in their crosshairs. As a result, it’s more important than ever before for business owners to prioritize cybersecurity. For example, implementing robust security measures such as enterprise passwordless authentication. By adopting passwordless authentication solutions, businesses can effectively mitigate the risks associated with traditional password-based systems, reducing the likelihood of successful cyberattacks and safeguarding their valuable data from unauthorized access.
According to a Verizon report, during the first six months of 2020, data breaches exposed 36 billion personal records. It takes an average of 207 days to identify a breach. That means by the time a business owner realizes a breach has occurred, it’s already too late.
If you’re a business owner, you’re not immune to cyberattacks; you need to prioritize cybersecurity. However, that’s not easy to do on your own. Cybersecurity is complex and requires multiple elements to provide complete protection.
Unless you’re a cybersecurity professional, managed cybersecurity services will provide you with the best protection. Here’s why:
- Managed cybersecurity services include a wide range of services
Although many aspects of cybersecurity can be automated, it’s not a one-time task. Cybersecurity involves a handful of different services that work together to create a comprehensive, secure perimeter for your business.
Verticomm for instance, a leading managed cybersecurity service provider, offers a comprehensive suite of solutions tailored to the specific needs of your business. By partnering with companies like Verticomm, your organization can benefit from the expertise and advanced tools necessary to maintain a secure digital environment.
For example, cybersecurity services should include:
- Annual security assessment. Running a yearly assessment is the best way to identify new vulnerabilities and create a plan to mitigate any issues.
- Creating and enforcing a strong IT security policy. Having a company-wide cybersecurity policy is critical. Enforcing that policy is also critical.
- Employee training. Employees need formal training to become adept at identifying threats like phishing attempts. They also need to be strongly discouraged from breaking the rules – like sharing account passwords.
- Alerts for compromised data. A good cybersecurity service will alert you when your company data is discovered to have been part of a data breach and/or being sold on the dark web.
- A zero-trust framework. Zero trust means “never trust – always verify.” For instance, if you’re not using multi-factor authentication for each login session to verify the login attempt, your company data is at risk.
- Automated threat detection. Your company network needs to have software installed to automatically identify, isolate, and analyze threats.
- Cybercrime insurance. Not many businesses realize the importance of cybercrime liability insurance. Data breaches can cost tens of thousands of dollars – enough to completely annihilate a small business. Cybercrime insurance will cover some of the most common cybercrime situations you might encounter, including legal fees.
These are just some of the benefits you’ll get from managed cybersecurity services that would be difficult to source on your own.
- Strong cybersecurity protects your profits
While cybersecurity expenses don’t directly produce higher profits, protecting customer data protects your profits by keeping you in good standing with your customers. If your customers know you don’t secure their personal information, they won’t do business with you.
Additionally, when consumers know a business goes out of their way to protect their personal data, they’ll be more likely to continue doing business with that organization. They’ll also be more likely to recommend that business to friends and family.
With that said, cybersecurity indirectly protects your business profits by maintaining trust between you and your customers.
- Ignoring cybersecurity can lead to bankruptcy
A total of 60% of companies go out of business within six months of a cyberattack. Depending on the type of attack, sometimes recovery isn’t an option. Other attacks, like data breaches, simply drain businesses financially from hefty fines and fees.
Although small businesses are hit the hardest, large companies are susceptible to bankruptcy after a data breach. For example, the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) went bankrupt after a data breach caused extensive damage beyond just leaked data. For instance, the company spent more than $400,000 on IT consultant fees, and spent over $3.8 million just notifying the seven million individuals affected by the breach.
Ignoring cybersecurity can have disastrous results and can lead to bankruptcy.
You can’t learn cybersecurity on the internet
As a business owner, you’ve probably learned enough marketing to get by on your own to a small degree. Maybe you can build your own website and do basic SEO. However, no matter how much you learn, you still need professional-level expertise to win.
You can only learn so much in any given profession online. When it comes to cybersecurity, unfortunately, there’s very little you can learn online.
You can’t learn cybersecurity online to a degree that will protect your business. If you want top-notch protection, you need managed cybersecurity services.
