Cyberattacks cost countries millions of dollars every year and is not showing signs of slowing down. As organizations become more integrated with the internet and technology it is important for them to consider the benefits and cost of implementing an effective cybersecurity program.

The benefits of organizations implementing a cybersecurity program is that it gives them a competitive edge. Protecting consumer data and ensuring safe systems is providing excellent customer service. Having a cybersecurity program reduces the likelihood of breaches. A breach can cost an organization their reputation, a damaged reputation can lead to consumer mistrust. Consumer mistrust can stop sales and cause attrition to rise. Another benefit of organizations implementing cybersecurity programs is that it creates employment opportunities that offer livable wages.

On the other side organizations must pay out salary dollars to all the employees such as engineers, analyst, vulnerability managers, trainers, all the way up to the C-suite titles. According to GlassDoor the average salary for a cybersecurity professional in Virginia is $65,388. The larger the organization, the more users, which creates a greater demand for cybersecurity professionals; the salary dollars can really add up. Software, detection, recovery containment, and investigation cost also must be included in a cybersecurity budget. Another cost of cybersecurity programs would be the productivity time that must be sacrificed to frequently train employees. An important part of cybersecurity Is making sure users have safe and secure hardware, which can be quite expensive. During the pandemic, the organization I work for completely shifted to working from home. Originally, we started with ancient desktops that had all our data stored on a single USB. The organization attitude toward security while working from home evolved, which led to all at home workers being issued ThinkPad laptop. The cost of one of these laptops is $2519.00, my job had a little over 5,000 people working from home in my office alone.

In closing implementing a cybersecurity program can be a large budget item for an organization. They must consider the cost of IT professionals, software programs, hardware, monitoring, and recovery cost. However, not having a cybersecurity program can have a greater cost. Lack of cybersecurity leads to breaches which impact consumer trust. A damaged reputation impacts profits and can ultimately lead to the closure of an organization.