The globe is more technologically interconnected and dependent than ever before; in fact, there were more than 10 billion active Internet of Things devices in 2021, and it is anticipated that by 2030, this number would be close to 25.4 billion. A few of the primary issues affecting businesses today that highlight the value of cybersecurity in business include the proliferation of connected devices, remote workforces, and the widening cybersecurity skills gap.
SMBs and business firms may find it challenging to fully defend themselves from online thieves and the current cyber threat without a thorough cyber security policy in place.
How important cybersecurity is
According to Gartner, cybersecurity refers to the people, policies, procedures, and technology used by an organization to safeguard its digital assets. And in recent years, it has developed into a crucial element of any modern organization’s success.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most common causes of cybercrime for you to consider if you’re a business leader who is still debating why cybersecurity is crucial and how it fits into your IT strategy. If you haven’t already, you should implement a formal cybersecurity program with strict controls and procedures as soon as possible.
The frequency and difficulty of cyberattacks
The sheer volume of cyberattacks is one of the most persuasive arguments for corporate executives to adopt a proactive cybersecurity strategy. Over 60% of firms worldwide have reportedly been subjected to at least one type of cyberattack, and it is believed that 30,000 websites are hacked on average each day. Every 39 seconds, a corporation is the victim of a cyberattack.
Given these figures, it is more a question of “when” than “if” a business would experience some kind of cyberattack effect. The complexity of cybercriminals is also increasing, in addition to the number of assaults. For various technologies and systems, they alter their targets, their objectives, and their assault strategies.
It is also getting harder to anticipate the kind of cyberattack a threat actor would launch and their purpose. According to Verizon’s 2020 DBIR, 22% of breaches used phishing or social engineering, 45% of breaches involved hacking, 86% of breaches were financially driven, 17% involved some type of malware. Outsiders were responsible for 70% of breaches.
Engineering innovation
While the importance of technology cannot be overstated in the fast-paced corporate environment of today, this only serves to highlight the significance of cyber security in today’s society. Businesses must take the necessary precautions to secure their tools, technology, and sensitive data against modern cyber threats, especially those resulting from cutting-edge developments like machine learning and artificial intelligence.
These technologies are transforming the already unpredictable cyber threat landscape even as they continue to change how firms conduct business. AI may be used, for example, by cybercriminals to plan and carry out attacks. Through the use of technology, these thieves can examine email and social media conversations to understand the subtleties of a trusted user’s behavior.
With this knowledge, they may create communications that look extremely trustworthy and utilize bots to imitate their actions and language in order to gather personal information. Therefore, utilizing bot detection is essential since it offers comprehensive security against automated attacks that might harm your online business.
Change in the cloud
Another aspect of the importance of cyber security is the continuing shift to cloud services. Most businesses nowadays use the cloud in some way, whether it’s to speed up corporate operations, store consumer data, support their plan for using remote workers, or for some other purpose completely.
While a cloud deployment has numerous security advantages, there may and will be security dangers, particularly if a cloud system is not adequately protected, as with everything technical and complicated.
It is crucial to make sure that all cloud workloads and instances are configured correctly and that all relevant security measures are in place to secure crucial company data and apps that are stored in the cloud as cloud computing solutions continue to expand.
Business operations affected
According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach is over $4 million, making cybercrime damaging to an enterprise.
Following a data breach, there are additional long-term expenses to take into account. These can last for months or years and include sizable costs that businesses may not be aware of, such as lost data or intellectual property, business disruption, monetary losses from system outages, legal liability, identity theft, reputational harm, or even business closure.
Start safeguarding your business right away
Why is cybersecurity so important? should be clarified by the factors mentioned above, which also highlight how crucial it is for businesses to adapt to the changing threat landscape.
There are a number of steps that businesses may take to safeguard their users and corporate assets from online attacks, but a few that can be done right away to improve IT security posture are as follows:
- Apply strict email security guidelines
- require all users to use secure passwords
- Implement automated updates across the whole organization.
- activate two-factor authentication
- require remote workers to utilize VPNs
- Create a security awareness program to teach staff the best cybersecurity practices.
Organizations without robust cyber defenses will be most at danger from more unexpected cyber attacks, which will ultimately leave their data exposed to theft and breaches.