What are the costs and benefits of developing cybersecurity programs in business?
The cost of implementing a cybersecurity program varies on what kind of business is creating one. Whether a business is large or small matters little to cyber attackers because of the increasing ease to deploy an attack. There are many factors that attribute to developing cybersecurity programs. The program itself allows easy organization and planning of the technologies and procedures to achieve a business’ goal. The program is a company-wide effort. The cybersecurity program can be viewed as prevention, detection, and response activities. Prevention aside from technical implantation is education and training of employees on relevant security efforts. This can incur its own expenses that may not be inconsequential. Detection and response expenses can vary. For example, response activities can simply be to recover from an attack or complex analysis of suspicious behavior. Of course, these would be digital activities that may come in the form of buying products.
The program itself is dynamic and not something that is left alone once completed. It is an ongoing establishing of policies, teaching, enforcing, and updating them. These costs may be better viewed annually or monthly. With this in mind, there then needs to be efficient ways of auditing and analyzing the IT system for improvements. This would be the smart way to view the program, but ultimately that comes to head of this effort and how much influence they are given by higher ups. Again, this a company-wide effort where internal attitudes about cybersecurity ultimately determine its effectiveness. The benefits of creating a cybersecurity program serves multiple purposes that if followed correctly far outweigh any financial, temporal, or other costs.
Essential functions of a cybersecurity program. ISACA. (n.d.). https://www.isaca.org/resources/isaca-journal/issues/2020/volume-4/essential-functions-of-a-cybersecurity-program
The costs of developing a cybersecurity program for your … Thales. (n.d.). https://www.thales-ld.com/the-costs-of-developing-a-cybersecurity-program-for-your-business/