What are the costs and benefits of developing cybersecurity programs in business?

Depending on how secure a business wants their systems to be, which should be very secure, developing a cybersecurity program can take up large amounts of money and time, but it is essential. The weakest point of any system is the user as they often make mistakes like clicking on the link in a phishing email or having unsecure passwords. A system is only as strong as its weakest point, so by training employees about the dos and don’ts of cybersecurity, that weakest point is being strengthened and therefore strengthens the entire system. However, creating a cybersecurity training program takes a lot of time to create the actual training and money to pay for the training if a company outsources it, or to pay for the materials if they insource it, and time that the employees spend in the training. In addition, a lot of policy and background management needs to be done to ensure that rules are set to make it more difficult for users to accidentally jeopardize a business. Basic training does not ensure that an employee will never mistake. In fact, not amount of training guarantees it, but better training does reduce the chances of this happening and typically better training means more money and time. Another cost for a business to develop a cybersecurity training program is that it makes the onboarding process longer. More training means more time which means a longer time before a new employee is ready to work. Longer periods of onboarding can mean a loss in revenue, especially if it is partly due to training, as the employee will not be able to create as much profit for the business during this time of onboarding. Although, this period of decreased profit from the employee could prevent catastrophic losses, both financially and in customer trust, later on in that employee’s time. A data breach is far more costly than any training.