Why small businesses can’t afford to ignore cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is important, but when you’re a small business, you will always feel like you have more pressing matters. There is no client data to steal if there are no clients, and there is no revenue to diminish if there is no revenue.
This seems logical, but fair weather conditions cannot always be considered when planning. It’s like calculating that you would make a cheaper home if you didn’t build a roof on it. Why would you need a roof when there’s no rain today, right?
No matter how insignificant it may seem at the moment, a small business cannot be made to last without good cybersecurity. Here are the top seven reasons why this should be much higher on your priority list.
1. Increased vulnerability
Small businesses typically have fewer security measures in place compared to large corporations. This means that they have fewer lines of defense and that every time they make an oversight, there’s a lower chance that something will protect them or that hackers will have to pause at the next stop.
Also, hackers view them as easier targets due to these weaker defenses. Sure, they have less to steal, and a chance of success comes with a lower payoff. However, this is a low-risk, low-reward type of scenario. Sure, success is not that lucrative, but the risks are a lot lower.
Hacking a small business compared to hacking a major corporation is like robbing a convenience store vs. robbing a bank. There’s not as much cash lying around, but the chance of getting caught or being unsuccessful in your heist is also considerably lower.
This is one of the reasons why you should immediately start tending to your digital security, or find a cybersecurity company to outsource to.
2. Financial losses
Cyberattacks can result in significant financial losses, including ransom payments, data recovery costs, and lost revenue from downtime.
In other words, it’s not just about someone hacking your account and stealing money. It’s about losing precious time you could earn and build a reputation. Reputational damage is something you might never recover from. A lot of people come to your site once, and if they see that you’re unavailable, they move on. Even worse, if they see that you’ve been hacked, they assume this always happens and that your cybersecurity cannot be trusted (it’s really hard to argue against that one).
Recovering from a breach can drain small businesses of their limited resources. Recovery is expensive, and your business might already be barely able to afford its operational costs.
3. Loss of customer trust
Customers expect businesses to protect their sensitive data, and a breach can lead to a loss of trust. If they’re buying from you, chances are that you have their financial data. At the very least, you have their email, their password (which they could recklessly use elsewhere), and more.
Also, once customer confidence is eroded, it’s difficult to regain, leading to potential loss of business. When they see that your system can be hacked once, they won’t stick around; they read your announcements and patch notes to see that they can trust you again. Instead, they’ll just refrain from doing business with you again.
4. Regulatory penalties
Keep in mind that many small businesses are subject to data protection regulations like GDPR or HIPAA. This means that you’re bound to fix some cybersecurity measures and breaches, whether you want to or not. It’s your legal obligation, and failure to comply with these regulations can result in steep fines in addition to the damage caused by a breach.
To make things worse, you’re not compliant with these unless you’re from the affected region. It’s enough for some of your clients to be from the region in order for you to be under its jurisdiction. In other words, GDPR is not just for businesses from the EU; it’s for anyone who does business with parties from the EU (which is virtually everyone).
5. Reputational damage
A security breach can harm a small business’s reputation, making it harder to attract new customers or retain existing ones. We’ve already mentioned this, but when you’re a large business with a loyal following, people are willing to tolerate mistakes. When you’re a small business, people are a lot less tolerant, and they might leave you over a much smaller oversight.
The cost of rebuilding a tarnished reputation can be more than many small businesses can afford. For a lot of people, there’s no reason to give you a second chance. There are a lot of small businesses out there, and if they believe that you’re already compromised, they will feel safer (and even more intuitive) going somewhere else.
6. Lack of a recovery plan
Many small businesses lack an incident response or disaster recovery plan. As we’ve already mentioned, they’re strained as they are. It’s really hard for them to stay afloat and day-to-day operations are really difficult to manage.
As for the recovery fund, forget about it. Just think about it: Imagine a family living paycheck to paycheck. Do they have an emergency fund? The same goes for most small businesses. They can barely afford their expenses when everything is running the way it’s supposed to.
Without one, the business may face extended downtime or, worse, might not recover at all. This is like when two boxers from different weight classes are fighting. A larger boxer has more room for error. They can miss, get hit more, and still end up standing. A smaller guy has to do it all flawlessly.
7. Target for future attacks
Once targeted, a business becomes more vulnerable to repeated attacks, especially if the breach was not properly mitigated. The worst part is that you may not notice the first instances of these cyberattacks. This means that you’re still exposed, and the problems in question still aren’t fixed.
Hackers often share information about weakly defended targets, making future attacks more likely. Hackers are not always lone wolves. They often form communities and create alliances. This means that they’ll spread the word about your poor cybersecurity, so you can expect more of the same.
Wrap up
Running a small business is always a difficult task. However, when you start making a priority list, you cannot afford to push cybersecurity down. This is a pressing matter, regardless of the fact that it’s not directly involved in growth or money-making. Handling your cybersecurity is like remembering to put your seatbelt on – it doesn’t matter how late you are, it’s not something that you can skip.
