How Important is Cybersecurity in the Current Times?

The importance of cybersecurity only seems to be growing ever since we stepped into the pandemic-ushered new normal. In the wake of the massive changes resulting from the global pandemic, ‘good enough’ security, stopgap/reactive security solutions, and hasty security strategies do not suffice. The fast-growing threat landscape and the increasing number of data breaches have only solidified the need for cybersecurity.

Even though the end of the pandemic is nowhere in sight, there is no going back to the old ways of doing business. Businesses need to understand cybersecurity’s importance in the new normal and equip themselves for the growing complexity of cyber-attacks and the fast-evolving threat landscape. In this article, we delve into the importance of cybersecurity, throwing light on important statistics and unpacking new cybersecurity trends.  

The Importance of Cybersecurity in the Current Times

Cybersecurity Provides a Cost Advantage

The cost of data breaches has been consistently rising over the past few years. Data breaches cost a mammoth USD 3.86 million on average across the globe. Data breaches were most expensive in the US with an average cost of USD 8.16 million. By investing in an intuitive, managed, and comprehensive security solution like AppTrana, businesses can prevent cyber-attacks and avoid hefty non-compliance fines, legal costs, escalation costs, and financial losses permeating from downtime and brand value erosion, among others.

The average time is taken to identify and contain data breaches were reported as 280 days. The longer businesses take to identify and contain breaches, the more costs they must bear. In fact, businesses that contained data breaches in less than 200 days saved more than USD 1 million. This becomes possible when businesses are proactive about security and have a solid incident response plan in place. Besides just the time to fix benefits and responses to bad events, a Cybersecurity initiative also provides operational benefits as it ensures separation of duties between a cyber security module and the business assets module that is being protected, ensuring your business assets and application have to deal only with legitimate payload, logs, analytics and telemetry built around it increasing the operational efficiency.

Robust Cybersecurity Provides a Competitive Edge

Data breaches do not just cause financial losses and attract legal costs and fines, but lead to brand value erosion. Brand value erosion has a long-term impact on how customers engage with brands and runs much deeper than short-term financial impact and reputational damage.

Data breaches are seen as a breach of customer trust and often lead to decreased engagement, lower brand loyalty, and higher customer attrition rates.  A recent study found that the top-100 most valued brands could lose USD 223 billion of brand value as a result of data breaches.

Further, 59% of customers are likely to avoid brands that have suffered from cyberattacks in the past year. Just one instance of ransomware-related service disruption, a transaction failure, or inability to access information is sufficient for 25% of customers in North America, the UK, France, and Germany to abandon a product/service in favor of competition.  

Given this scenario, robust cybersecurity measures and proactive effort to prevent data breaches is a brand differentiator. It gives businesses a competitive edge in today’s day and age.  

Cyberattacks are All Pervasive

Nothing can stress the importance of cybersecurity in business more than the fact that organizations of all types, sizes, and industries face cyberattacks, from healthcare and government institutions to big corporations to small and medium enterprises.

The big data breaches of the past two decades from Yahoo to Equifax have significantly dented the finances and the brand value of companies. In 2020, Marriott International faced a data breach that exposed records of 5.2 million guests. Microsoft customer support database containing 280 million+ records was left unprotected, putting the customer information at risk. In April 2020, 267 million Facebook profiles were found to be listed for sale on the dark web. In April 2021, 500 million+ LinkedIn user profiles were found listed on the dark web.

That is not all, 43% of all cyberattacks target small and medium enterprises. 60% of small businesses that have faced cyberattacks are known to shut down within 6 months! This is because SMEs do not have the resources or technological might of bigger organizations to meet the mammoth costs of data breaches and rectify the resulting brand value erosion. So, investing in robust cybersecurity yields a high ROI.  

Fast-Paced Technological Advancements

From automation and cloud computing to 5G networks, AI and ML, the fast-paced technological advancements are aiding not just businesses, but threat actors as well. Modern cybersecurity systems and services of security experts enable businesses to steer clear of attackers and proactively protect their IT infrastructure.

The Way Forward ‘Good enough’ security has only left businesses with a severe lack of visibility and poor security posture. Organizations must understand the importance of cybersecurity and make appropriate investments in robust cybersecurity solution like AppTrana by Indusface to ensure business continuity and preserve brand value