Securing your online data and important records is no longer a matter of luxury or convenience – it is a matter of necessity. In a recent study, experts reported that 55% of small businesses have sustained a cyber breach over a 12 month period. That means that you have more of a chance of being affected by cyber-crime than not – and the numbers go up every day.
In fact, small business is an attractive target for bad actors who are looking for a quick and lucrative breach. This is likely because small business traditionally has a much smaller cyber security budget (in relation to their overall budget) than large companies.
Should You Increase Your Cyber Security Budget?
The statistics get even more grim. Over half of small-to-medium sized businesses go out of business in 6 months after a cyber attack, and although 58% of businesses know they are at risk, 51% report that they have allocated little to no budget to protecting themselves.
Of course, not every business is as vulnerable as the next. For instance, if you sell pizza, you may not be as concerned about a data breach compromising customer data. However, if you run an accounting firm, a medical practice, or a successful retail chain, the value of your data is much higher. You may store confidential email addresses, credit card information, or medical records – all of which are attractive to cybercriminals.
Your risk does not only lie in the initial loss, however. Businesses rack up losses due to loss of business after the breach (loss of trust), lost business until you can get your network secure again, legal fees, investigative fees, and court-imposed fees and fines. All of these costs are often crippling to a business.
If you have a 50-50 chance of being hit, and a greater than 50% chance of then losing your business if it happens – your cyber security budget should be a major concern.
What is Included in a Cyber Security Budget?
At the very least, your organization should have anti-virus and anti-malware software installed, as well as a corporate firewall. These protections are the bare minimum for any organization doing business online. You will also want to have the latest version of your operating software installed, and continually ensure that all patches and updates are installed as soon as possible.
Depending on your company purpose and mission, you may wish to employ a cybersecurity expert or to contract with a managed services firm who can monitor the integrity of your network for you. (Both of these options will allow your organization to stay on top of the latest malware, trojan virus, spyware and ransomware threats.)
Your budget should also include training for your employees, to learn about where the threats originate, how to recognize them, and how as a team you can avoid falling victim to these attacks.
In order to mitigate the risk of hefty fees, fines, and costs after an attack, your budget should also include cybersecurity insurance. This type of business insurance becomes invaluable should you sustain losses due to a data breach, whether at the hands of criminals or as a result of an honest mistake by one of your employees.
So how much should you be allocating to cybersecurity budget? Although every business is different, experts agree that somewhere between 10-14% of your overall IT budget should be directed towards cyber security. While this may seem a large amount at first, the threats are very real and growing every day.
Call Alliance IT today, and we will help you to perform a risk analysis in regards your current technology and data vulnerability. We are here to assist you in identifying risk, providing solutions, and maximizing your IT budget so that your business can thrive and survive.
