Cyber Security

Why now is the time to review your business cyber security

Your business cyber security is at risk. That’s because cybercrime costs UK businesses between £9 billion and £11 billion every year.

Digital crime is vastly growing. Internet criminals exploit our personal and business information for their gain. They use the dark web to trade in illegal products, and they can even gain access to classified government information. In the UK, 43% of all small businesses and 72% of large companies were victims of digital crimes last year. Companies can no longer ignore this threat.

Many different types of attacks target businesses, from less severe instances of fraudulent emails to more powerful attacks that exploit financial and GDPR protected data.

With the proper cyber security in place, fraudulent emails can be filtered out easily and disposed of safely. However, emails can contain malware and viruses that grant access to your business’ IT systems in more severe cases. Criminals can then steal your business’ information and sell it. Or they can lock you out of your IT systems, making it difficult to regain access, even for expert IT support providers.

Counting the cost

Businesses can pay the price for inadequate IT security. The average cost to a company for cybercrime rises each year. After a security breach, the cost to businesses was around £3,100 in 2018 and £4,810 in 2019.

If data is stolen, this average cost can rise even further. According to reports released in July 2018 by IBM, the average price for a data breach for a UK company was £2.7 million. Though this was 8% higher than the previous year, it was slightly less than the global average.

The main cost of cyber-attacks is repairing the IT system, compensating those affected (customers), and the money it takes to investigate the breach.

Disruption to the business

It isn’t just direct financial costs that can hinder business development. Every cyber-attack against your business will have a price to productivity. This indirect cost can be high, with some companies losing two months’ worth of work when they suffer a cyber-attack. The disruption can be so significant that more than half of small businesses will cease trading after a cyber-attack.

How can you prevent a cyber-attack?

There are many ways to reduce the risk of a cyber-attack on your business. The first is outsourcing IT support functions to a company with experience in dealing with cybercrime. They can find gaps in your security and help to fix them. It would help if you also looked at training staff, so they know what a threat to your IT security breach could be.

For more information on how outsourcing with SoConnect can help your business to get the most out of your IT, fill out a form, contact us on 0333 240 1824 or send us an email at hello@soconnect.co.uk

This isn’t a one-time job either. Business Cyber Security needs to be constantly updated, at least once a week. Every day new threats are emerging. However, new defences are developed continuously. You’re allowing new threats to access your computer systems without constantly updating your systems.

You should also invest in proper security software. Emails should be filtered, so you delete malicious emails before staff can accidentally open them. Phishing emails are a significant cause of data breaches. In addition, you should install firewalls on your server to prevent attacks.

At SoConnect, we offer IT Managed Services and disaster recovery support to our clients to protect their business. From minor calamities to full-blown catastrophes, we help ensure that you and your business are protected so you can always keep going.