If you have been putting off making the effort (and spending the money) to protect your business from cyber attacks, perhaps you should reconsider. Over the past few years, cyber crime has been on the rise, and it’s costing the organizations targeted for an attack big time. According to the 2013 Cost of Cyber Crime Study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by HP Enterprise Security Products, the numbers are astronomical:
- The average annualized cost of cybercrime incurred per organization was $11.56 million, with a range of $1.3 million to $58 million. This is an increase of 26 percent, or $2.6 million, over the average cost reported in 2012.
- Organizations experienced an average of 122 successful attacks per week, up from 102 attacks per week in 2012.
- The average time to resolve a cyberattack was 32 days, with an average cost incurred during this period of $1,035,769, or $32,469 per day—a 55 percent increase over last year’s estimated average cost of $591,780 for a 24-day period.
Yet, even with these startling findings, the global economy has yet to mount an adequate defense against the rise of cyberattacks. According to a recent report conducted by McKinsey & Company entitled, “Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World,” by the year 2020, cyber attacks will cost the global economy some $3 trillion in lost productivity and growth.
If you own a small business, it’s easy to think that such things will never happen to you, that you’ll somehow be below the radar of all the online hackers and thieves. But, don’t be so sure that your small business won’t be targeted. Cyber criminals are increasingly setting their sights on small businesses.
In this week’s guest post, we’ll take a look at the most destructive threats to your small business network, and how you should protect your small business from cyber attacks.
