Data breaches can and do happen frequently to unexpecting businesses of all sizes. Looking ahead at cybersecurity risks for 2021 can help businesses know how to prepare if they’re targeted in a data breach this year:
What Are Data Breaches?
A data breach is an incident in security where there is unauthorized access to information that businesses and companies store. These breaches can hurt a business’s reputation and potentially cost them their customers. They also take time to repair and then businesses will need to put things in place so they are able to regain trust and prove it will not happen again.
As our technology moves forward, it causes all our information to be moved to the digital world and be kept online. This is why cybersecurity is something all businesses need to take seriously and invest in by using IT cybersecurity services.
The average global cost of data breach is $3.86 million. So with costs like that, you will certainly want to do everything in your power to have top cybersecurity as a part of your defenses.
Damage from Data Breaches
When data breaches occur it can cause damage in a whole host of ways to your business. For starters, it will most likely cause revenue loss. In addition, it can cause damage to the reputation of the brand. Not only will it affect customers short term, but it can cause long term issues with potential customers being able to trust and use your company due to the issues that arise with having a data breach.
Other things that can happen with a data breach are the hidden costs associated with it from insurance hikes, legal fees to PR, and investigations. Hackers can also take intellectual property which can cause loss of income down the line; some thefts can include your blueprints, business strategies, and any upcoming designs or product launches.
Expected Business Risks in 2021
With more people than ever closing up shop and working from home, starting small online businesses, and having to move online due to the pandemic, it is inevitable that cyberattacks could be on the rise.
Remote workers will continue to be a target for cybercriminals who will have more options and businesses to target. While having staff work from home, it can open businesses up to a whole host of issues. Remote workers’ computers and the data stored on them can be an easy target for hackers and cyber attacks.
It is known that there are more people than ever working from home even in some of the high-level industries like banking and finance. Big businesses are big targets for hackers as they have huge amounts of data that can be taken.
But don’t think small businesses aren’t focused on as well. Smaller businesses tend to not know much about cyber attacks and security so can be easy targets for hackers to access customer data, financial records and any important information that is kept on your computers.
How to Protect Your Business
So what can your business do to protect themselves from becoming a target and being hit with a data breach or other cyber attacks on your business?
Cybersecurity services can look to cover a whole host of things for you. With device management, they will be able to look after mobile and remote devices so even if you have people working from home they will still be protected.
Another thing that can benefit your business is network monitoring, which means being able to detect and prevent issues before they affect you. This way you can stay protected and know about attacks in advance to boost security and prevent them from trying to target you again.
Implementing some training will mean that you can have your team trained for best security practices for prevention to deter potential hackers.
Looking for endpoint protection will give you in-depth defense and protect your remote users. This is perfect if you have people working from home and expect them to continue to do so.
And lastly, another recommendation is to look at business continuity, which can give protection in case of a catastrophe.