Businesses these days are storing most of their client’s or customers’ data online. So, this data has become vulnerable to cyber-attacks and crimes. To take care of the same, businesses need to plan their security and invest more in cybersecurity equipment for protection. But, this might become an added burden on customers as the price of the product and services might increase.
As per the reports of business insurer Hiscox, businesses lost more than $1.8 billion to cybercriminals. Not many businesses are secure, and big companies are being targeted quite strongly. It has been seen that companies who are into manufacturing, technology, financial service, energy, and other sectors have faced immense losses.
Ways Cyber Crime Can Affect Your Business Today
It is important that you catch the signals that your business is under the threat of cybercriminals. To help you out, below are a few of the takeaways that reflect how these cybercriminals are affecting business around the world for you to acknowledge:
1. Enhanced Expenses:
If you want to protect yourself from online thieves, you need to take away your wallets from them. If you are experiencing high expenses suddenly, then you must follow the below-mentioned steps. Take a look:
- Connect with the cybersecurity expertise
- Avail the right technology to keep track of the expense
- Let the affected ones know about the data breach.
So, you must not ignore if there is a rise in the graph of expenses all of a sudden. It is certainly an effect of data breach or cyber-attack.
Fact Check: As per reports provided by Hiscox, more than 6 percent of the companies have to suffer from ransom payment because of the Ransomware attack.
2. Operational Disturbance
It’s not only financial damage that you need to notice, as if your business operations are facing disruptions, then you might have been a victim of a cyber-attack or crime. There have been times when businesses have faced indirect expenses because of cyber-attacks by disrupting business operations. This results in a huge loss in revenue. There are a number of ways that cybercriminals use to hamper a company’s activities. It can be anything like:
- Computer systems are infected with malware that can wipe-out the valuable data.
- A server configured with malicious code can completely block the availability of your website.
These are a few of the ways that show how these fraudsters can affect business operations. So, you need to be aware of the same so that you can take quick action against it and keep the damage down.
Fact Check: In 2010, hackers attacked Visa and Mastercard and got their website down for a long time period.
3. Changed Business Practices
Cybercrime can affect businesses around the world, that’s why businesses are actively looking to hire Ethical hackers to protect themselves. The companies need to understand how they are approaching to collect the data that is sensitive to the business. This has done many businesses around the world to stop storing business data and information anywhere that is accessible to fraudsters online. Not only this, many have to shut down their online stores because of their inability to protect them from cyberattacks.
If you are witnessing any kind of vulnerable business practices, it means that there is a possibility of a cyberattack. You need to act on the same at the quickest, or else you might completely lose out on your customer details. The customers today know every single thing about the security features. So, if it is not up to the mark, you might not get the numbers you are looking for.
4. Revenue Lost
A drop in the revenue numbers is certainly another indication that your business has been affected because of cyber fraud. You might not know, but the cybercriminals might run away with your business revenue in no time. So, you need to be careful and assess this issue at the quickest before it’s too late. There have been cases that reflect how cyber attackers cut loose with the organization’s revenue, and it was quite late for the company to react.
Fact Check: Sony Pictures faced this issue in the year 2014 where their revenue was affected, and the culprits were North Koreans.
5. Intellectual Property Stolen
Another way that can make you realize that your business has been attacked was when anything discussed privately is out in the market. Whether it is product designs, market strategies, or anything else, if it is out without your consent, then the attack has been made. So, you need to be careful with what you keep in your system as it is a big risk for you to do business.
Fact Check: More than 30 percent of the US companies have reported their data being stolen and sold out in the market by Chinese fraudsters.
The Bottom Line
These are a few of the aspects that businesses need to be aware of to remain safe from any kind of cyberattacks. All you need to do is to keep a good eye on the business environment and keep tracking all the movements. You must have a cybersecurity specialist to assist you with the same. The experts can take care of all the indications and ensure that the business is reacting to the same with complete protection. Being proactive can save your business from any kind of cyber attacks in the future.
Author Bio
Neha Singh is the Founder & CEO of Securium Solutions with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in ECSA, Vulnerability Management, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Management, and Business Development. She loves traveling and tracking.
