The Effects of Cybercrimes on Small Businesses

Cybercrime is a serious issue affecting big corporations and small businesses; small businesses often suffer worse consequences due to limited resources. Unfortunately, many small business owners do not see the value in investing in cybersecurity measures because they are under the assumption that they are too small to be targeted. However, this mindset puts them at a greater risk of falling victim to a cyberattack.

When a cyber-attack hits a business, there are four effects it can have on the business. One of these is financial. This can involve draining an owner’s business and personal bank accounts, leading to identity theft and loss of revenue. On top of that, the cost of notifying clients of data breaches, providing records to law enforcement, and increasing insurance premiums can also add up. The most common type of financial cyber-attack is ransomware, which can result in permanent data loss even after a ransom is paid. But finances aren’t the only devastating loss you can take on your business.

Depending on your industry, you may have to follow specific compliance rules and regulations to prevent a cyber-attack. If you’re in one of these industries, experiencing a cyber-attack can cause more losses than you think. Your business may have to suspend operations for violating compliance regulations. Or, if you are lucky, you might have to comply with even more cybersecurity regulations, which can be costly. It can already be hard to deal with compliance rules and regulations, but post-cyber-attack, it can feel impossible and like a disruption to your business. This will bring us to our 3rd effect of a cyber-attack: operational disruption.

When they think of a cyber-attack, most people rarely think of the operational disruption it can cause. An example of the type of disruption a cyberattack can cause is the effects of a ransomware attack. The average ransomware attack lasts 21 days before recovery and 4.6 million dollars on average in recovery cost. An attack like this can take a lot of money and time to recover, which could cause many problems for you and your staff. After a cyber-attack, it’s possible that you and your staff could miss out on paychecks or have someone’s identity stolen, depending on what sensitive information you have. This could be a huge problem for an organization because not only will it take a while to fix, but it could also destroy your reputation.

Reputational damage could be the worst out of all of these. Even if you get your finances back and your business up and running again, you’ll lose all your customers if your reputation gets ruined. It can be much more difficult to gain customers after damaging your reputation than to just get operations back up and running.

Although this may sound intimidating, many resources and solutions can help prevent a cyber-attack from disrupting your business. Having the right team supporting you could alleviate any fears you may have. If you are looking for a supportive team to have your back, don’t hesitate to contact our team at Vertek! Vertek offers many solutions that could be beneficial to your business. Some of our solutions include MDR solutions, compliance services, risk assessments, phishing simulations, and cloud services. These are only some of the many solutions we offer at Vertek to support small businesses. If you are interested in learning more, contact Vertek today!