Trade off

With the limited amount of funds that the company was granted, 35% of it will be spent on the employees and the other 65% will be spent on the cyber technology. The balance between training the employees and obtaining the necessary programs to effectively secure the company have equal out. Therefore, it will be much easier and cheaper to train the employees on how to use the programs rather than spending too much on certifications that they will not be using while working at this company.

Training employees

The cost of training the employees will not be as expensive when it comes to giving security awareness training. A. Belford (2024) states, “The cost of a security awareness training program averages to less than $25 per employee per year.” (2024) Therefore, if we have around 70 employees in the cyber department, this company would spend around $1750 yearly on these trainings. Also according to A. Belford (2024), this training is essential, she states, “Your organization may not be compliant with industry regulations or frameworks such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and others which require security awareness training to all employees.”(2024).

Cyber Technology

The basic cyber technology that is needed to support the company from any threats are, firewalls, anti-malware and anti-virus software’s, penetration testing, password auditing and packet sniffers, network security monitors, vulnerability scanners, network intrusion detection, and encryption tools. The cost of these tools and software’s will vary by the size of the company but, regardless, it will work within the IT departments budget. For example, A. Rinaldi (2019) states, “According to Statista, businesses worldwide spend an average of 12 percent of their IT budgets on cybersecurity. For example, if a company pays $3,000 monthly to an IT managed service provider to cover their IT needs, its cybersecurity budget would be about $360 per month.”(2024)

Conclusion

 In conclusion, the overall budget for the cyber technology and training of the employees will be estimated to $60,000. This also includes any problems that may occur in the future, which are maintenance issues or human errors. With the limited amount of funds this company has granted towards this department, around 35% of it will be spent on the employees and around 65% will be spent on the cyber technology. This is to ensure this company prioritizes the security of the data rather than overly spending on employees that should already know how to maintain these systems.

References

Belford, A. (2023, January 31). How much does security awareness training cost? LaScala. https://lascala.com/how-much-does-security-awareness-training-cost/

DeVry University. (2024, January 10). Cyber security tools and techniques | DeVry University. devry.edu. https://www.devry.edu/blog/cyber-security-tools-and-techniques.html

Rinaldi, A. (2019, November 20). How much should your SMB budget for cybersecurity? business.com. https://www.business.com/articles/smb-budget-for-cybersecurity/