More than 30,000 websites are hacked every day globally, and 43% of those cyber-attacks are targeted at small businesses. Smaller companies are more vulnerable to cybercrime because cyber security isn’t a priority, they have limited funds, and cyber security measures are not required. Yet the cost of a data breach certainly outweighs the expense of cyber security measures, so why aren’t all small business owners taking steps to protect themselves, their employees, and their clients?
Overconfidence causes most small business owners to forego cybersecurity measures for data breach protection because they don’t think they’ll ever be hacked. Instead, they believe antivirus software will do the trick but without a firewall, multifactor authentication, encryption and more cybersecurity measures, data remains at risk. If every small business owner would listen to one podcast, or attend one seminar about cybercrime, it’s likely they’d finally understand the threat hackers pose, and the small price they can pay to protect their data compared to what they’ll pay if they don’t.
Cybersecurity services cost anywhere from $100 to $2000 per month, depending on the size of the business. That’s anywhere from $12,000 to $24,000 per year on average. The cost of a typical data breach for a business with fewer than 500 employees is $2.98 million. That is $2.98 million for one isolated incidence. Data breaches take a while to be noticed by company officials, 197 days on average. Once a team of experts is assembled, the breach can take an additional 69 days to be contained. Criminals will have months to gather data and steal intellectual property, employee records, client information, etc.
If you get hacked, the first step is to activate your breach response team. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains what that is in an article regarding the 5 steps a business should take after a breach. If you don’t know what a breach response team is and don’t have an incidence response plan in place, you need expert help from a cybersecurity company.