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

When creating a business, it is important to remember that cybersecurity is a crucial part in anyone’s business that is connected online or uses a network. Business and cybersecurity overlap in numerous ways: Businesses must ensure their computer systems and networks are secure, businesses could potentially become victims of cybercrime or even commit cybercrimes, and all employees have a role in protecting the business’ networks and systems. The average global loss to cyberattacks for businesses was found to be around $7.7 million a year. It was also found that losses were higher for industries that were related to finances, utilities, and energy industries. Due to this risk, it is highly important that businesses ensure secure systems and the best cybersecurity practices.

There are numerous reasons why a business must keep their systems secure. Some examples include meeting specific business goals, legal reasons, financial motivations, and ethical issues. When examining what financial motivations exist for businesses, it can be broken down into two categories: internal losses and external losses. Internal losses include detection costs, investigation costs, containment costs, recovering costs, and ex-post responding costs. External losses include business disruption, damaged equipment, and revenue loss. All of these different costs are what every business faces that could be due to a security breach.

In order to establish a secure network and systems, businesses must hire multiple types of security professionals such as engineers, computer science, information technology, policy makers, and educators. Having a strong team that is well educated and sectioned properly will allow for a company to avoid a lot of the risks that are present within the world. While it may seem like it is a lot of work and people to hire, it is crucial to consider what is best for your business. Businesses are different so they need different things, but often they are approached with the same issues within cybersecurity. Developing a strong cybersecurity program is most certainly a benefit to the business in order to prevent a lot of the costs that I previously mentioned above.