Bharat Bhise HNA – Why Your Small Business Should Care About Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is probably something which isn’t uppermost in your mind as a small business and many owners consider this to be a cost which they simply cannot afford. Unfortunately however this is something of vital importance to your business and it is an area of your business which you must give sufficient focus to. Bharat Bhise HNA is an expert in this field and he spends much time with small business owners to support them with the education that they need about online security. If you own a small business, here is why you should care about cybersecurity.

It Can Happen to You

There is a school of thought amongst many business owners that cybercriminals are not going to be targeting a small business, focusing their efforts instead on companies which they have plenty to gain from when they attack them. Whilst this is true to a point, in that the big boys have more to steal, the fact of the matter is that small businesses are very often at a higher risk level than big businesses. The reason for this is very simple, the hackers know that you are likely to have outdated systems and poor, if any, cybersecurity. Small businesses in this case are considered as low hanging fruit, easy to pick time and time again.

Focus on Security

What is often difficult to understand is that many business owners will install locks on their doors, cameras in their premises and alarms should someone break in. This of course does make sense, but not if you then decide not to invest in cybersecurity. Ultimately you are at just as much risk, if not more, of being attacked by a cybercriminal as you are of being attacked by a thief in your business. Security is there to protect against threats, and cybercrime is certainly a threat which you should take seriously.

The Cost

The cost of an attack can be very expensive indeed, can your business afford this? You will have to pay for repairing the software and hardware which has been damaged, the lost time as a result of the hack will cost your business money and so too will the public damage which has been done once word of the attack gets out. In truth the cost of boosting your cybersecurity completely pales in comparison to what it will cost you if you are attacked.

Reputation Damage

It is likely that on your computer systems you have personal information about your staff and potentially about your customers. If you are attacked and this data is obtained by the attacker, how do you think that will help you reputation? Many companies have experienced this and the results is a complete lack of trust from the customer, with many not only choosing to take their business elsewhere, but also to publicly shame the company who lost their personal details.

The truth is that cybersecurity is not something you can ignore, you must pay attention to it and you must ensure that you have invested whatever you have in locking yourself down.