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

Every business starting out these days should seriously consider the costs and benefits of developing a cybersecurity program as part of their overall business plan.  It is an investment and protection that can save the company tons of money lost to potential hackers and the possibility of having to shut down the business due to an overwhelming cyber attack. Every business owner should start by researching the average loss in funds due to cybercrimes.  For example, a small company of less than 50 employees lost an average of $24,000 each back in 2020. And if a business has been up and running for some time without a cyber incident, they can always request a vulnerability assessment be performed on their systems for a consulting company to find out where their defenses are weaker.  For example, the average cost of an overall vulnerability assessment of one server costs about $2,000. The actual costs of implementing a cybersecurity program varies but the core investments are people, software and hardware.  Training employees is just as important as selecting the best software and hardware that provide protection to your networks and data.  Employees are the first line of defense and require up front training and annual refreshers to popular and new cyber techniques. Once a proper cybersecurity program is up and running, the benefits go a long ways. Properly training employees will help keep phishing attempts at bay and keep malware from entering business networks thru email links. Properly protecting sensitive company data and customer financial information will promote a better business reputation. Business downtimes due to cyber attacks will not be a concern with a good cybersecurity program and productivity will be improved.  So, in summary, the benefits out way the costs of developing and implementing a good cybersecurity program from the beginning in order to succeed and stay in business.