The importance of cyber security cannot be overstated. As businesses become more and more reliant on their IT systems to serve their customers, it has also become more and more important to protect those systems from malicious actors or viruses. In 2022, a UK Government survey found that 39% of UK businesses had ‘identified a cyber attack in the last 12 months’1. Despite this, we find that cyber security is an often overlooked element of a business’s IT and security plan, with the same government survey finding that only 23% of businesses had a formal cyber security strategy2.
But why is the importance of cyber security so crucial and how can focusing on cyber security protect your business? In this blog, we’re going to explore the various ways cyber security can protect your business and give you our top recommendations on how to improve cyber security.
1. Cyber security helps to protect your data
- The most vital thing that can be lost in a security breach is your business’s critical data and customer details.
- For example, if you or one of your employee’s machines get infected with a Cryptolocker virus. Cryptolocker is a type of virus known as ransomware, meaning your data will be held for ransom for normally a large sum of cryptocurrency whilst the infected computer or network is completely locked down. If you’re unprepared for an attack like this it could leave you out of pocket after paying a ransom, or without the data, your business runs on, and in some cases, both.
- And losing business-critical data can have a devastating impact on your business. Think of everything your company processes every day – payments, confidential emails, contact details – all things you would never want to be accessed by someone outside your business, never mind malicious hackers.
- Plus, when it comes to customer data, a large breach could leave you at risk of a large fine from the ICO under the Data Protection Act (2018) if customer data is released.
2. Cyber security can also protect your productivity
- Imagine you’ve gotten Cryptolocker and it has infected a few of your colleagues’ computers. Or your e-commerce business is facing a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack where devices flood your website, overloading your server and making it impossible to sell or work. Or you have fallen for a phishing attack, giving out account or payment information to a hacker pretending to be from a legitimate source.
- Cybersecurity breaches can cost you money and your data but their biggest cost is time and productivity. If you can’t access your machines, data, or network – you can’t work, leading to potentially large stretches of downtime, unhappy customers and hours (maybe even days) of lost productivity.
- By taking cyber security measures and preventing malicious attacks, you may save days worth of working hours – further demonstrating the importance of cyber security.
3. Protecting your reputation
- A cyber security breach can also have a detrimental effect on how your customers view your business. Having downtime may lead to long delays in service, whilst losing customer data could even put your customers at risk from hackers.
- By implementing measures to avoid a cyber security breach and having a plan in case the worst is to happen, you will be able to protect your reputation and keep your customers happy.
What are the most important Cyber Security products to implement?
- Anti-virus protection
- Anti-virus protection is a vital preventative measure – catching any virus before it can cause havoc on your system.
- We recommend our endpoint detection and response (EDR) anti-virus. EDR used machine learning to scan and catch even the newest viruses.
- Managed Backup
- If your data is held to ransom or even if it’s accidentally deleted by an employee, our cloud backup solution has a copy stored – preventing downtime and stress! Our ECS managed cloud backup solution is available for servers, NASs, workstations, laptops and all kinds of virtual machines – and it’s checked every weekday by our team of engineers.
- Anti-spam
- Stop phishing emails from arriving in your inbox with a managed anti-spam solution. Managed anti-spam reduces the likelihood of clicking on potentially malicious emails by preventing them from getting to you. Twice daily you will be sent a report of what has been blocked so you can access anything legitimate.
- Keep your software and operating systems up-to-date
- It is vital that all necessary security updates are implemented promptly, keeping your devices secure from known exploits.
Want further information about the importance of cyber security and how ECS Computers can help you improve it? Give us a call on 01553 692727 or send us an email at [email protected] and a member of the team will be in touch!
1 & 2 ‘Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022’, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport & Ipsos Mori (2022), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1088534/Business_infographic_-_Cyber_Security_Breaches_Survey_2022.pdf
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