You might think of stocks, real estate, or the latest tech startups when you think of smart investments. However, there’s another kind of investment that provides both in the immediate and the long-term cybersecurity. This investment is crucial to protect businesses from costly cyberattacks as well as helps them avoid costly fines and losing trust from their customers.
As digital transformation transforms business operations, enterprises are creating, modifying and storing an ever-growing amount of data that needs to be efficiently managed across complex computing environments. These environments are regularly spanning cloud and enterprise data centers as well as many connected devices, including Internet of Things sensors and robots. This increased complexity creates a greater attack surface which makes it more difficult to protect critical data from loss and compromise.
In addition to the financial costs, data breaches can damage the reputation of a company and lead to long-term losses in sales. A recent study found that the average cost of an incident involving data breaches is $4 million – an impact that is difficult for any organization to take on. In addition, regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the General Data Protection Regulation impose steep fines on companies that do not meet the strictest security standards.
In today’s highly competitive market, a strong cybersecurity posture is essential to achieving growth. It’s more cost-effective and efficient to invest into preventative measures instead of paying for cleanup and restoration after a breach. Utilizing the appropriate tools and technology, enterprises can ensure that their information is secure during transit, rest, and in the middle. This means creating encryption, focusing on the human firewall, and executing regular deep-checks.