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Cybersecurity incidents can absolutely paralyze a business and destroy customer trust. Recovering from these attacks is very expensive. To help prevent these devastating consequences from occurring, it’s imperative that all businesses put cybersecurity safeguards into place.
These are some of our recommended best practices for cybersecurity, budget planning, outlining cyber-attack costs and various types of cybersecurity incidents to be aware of for the upcoming year.
Why budget for cybersecurity?
1. Protecting the business
A cybersecurity budget funds programs that protect the company from the cost and disruption of a cyberattack.
2. Satisfying risk assessment clauses
Risk assessment clauses are rapidly becoming a standard in contracts. A funded cybersecurity plan acts as a safety measure for dealing with third-party cybersecurity risk assessments.
3. Helping with compliance
Having a cybersecurity budget will help an organization comply with regulations such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,) as well as other national and state regulations that legally require companies to maintain cybersecurity standards.
4. Keeping the company competitive
It’s essential that the cybersecurity budget helps the company compete for large budgets and contacts to enhance growth potential.
Because cybersecurity is massive and as company budgets are being built, it’s imperative to include the following investment areas and prioritize them based on company strategy:
Risk assessment
Business preparation and continuity
Incidence response
Employee training
Network and website vulnerability identification and management
Running regular and/or weekly scanning and testing, including dark web scanning and ethical hacking to determine pivotal open ports or vulnerability areas
5. Cyber insurance policies
If you’re not convinced the company needs a cyber security budget, consider that the business won’t be the only victim of a cyberattack. Rather, employees, customers, and strategic partners will experience the consequences as well due to this lack of planning.
So how much should be spent on cyber security? It depends on the following:
Experience in recent security incidents
Updating older or legacy systems to shore up cybersecurity vulnerabilities
Enhancing security software
Spending more on managed security services
However, the percentage of total IT spending on cybersecurity may vary due to:
Industry and company size
Compliance and other mandates that affect the business
The sensitivity of the data the company uses, collects, and shares
Requests from company stakeholders and customers
Taking crucial cybersecurity steps can mitigate the damage and reduce the costs resulting from a data breach. Given the potential expenses and negative impacts of a data breach on a small business, any budget dedicated to improving a company’s cybersecurity posture is money well spent in the long run. Business and reputation both depend on this proactive, rather than reactive, approach.
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