The Importance of Cybersecurity to Businesses
The lingering spectre of the coronavirus and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine will have concerned domestic and international firms alike, but these challenges run alongside those that are more universal in nature.
Take cybersecurity, for example, with the UK experiencing more than 400,000 reports of online fraud and cybercrime through 2021.
It’s thought that 60,111 of these reports came from businesses, who reported hacks and data breaches that could have a highly detrimental impact on ventures. But what is cybersecurity, and why is it so important in the digital age?
What is Cybersecurity and Why is it So Important?
The term ‘cyber security’ refers to how organisations work to reduce the risk posed by cyber attacks, in all of their various forms.
More specifically, your business will develop a cybersecurity strategy that’s focused on preventing and managing instances of ransomware infections, criminal hacking and associated attacks, in order to protect the organisation and core assets such as customer data.
In practical terms, the primary function of cybersecurity is safeguarding individual devices and networks, which are directly involved in the storage and transfer of data and play a huge role in the security of your venture.
But why is cybersecurity so important to firms? Well, apart from the sheer rise of cyber and malware attacks in the digital age, one study carried out by the Ponemon Institute showed that 23% of data breaches were caused by human error.
So, an awareness of cybersecurity and associated training can help to reduce your risk at source, while making this a key priority throughout a business.
How to Teach Cybersecurity in Your Business
Given the insights above and the potential cost of white collar defence investigations that arise in the wake of cybercrime, it’s crucial that you build awareness of cybersecurity and the role that it can play in your business.
Most importantly, you’ll need to educate employees on the various (and most relevant) types of cybercrime, while using case studies to reinforce the role of human error and the potential cost of such mistakes.
When educating employees about cybersecurity, it’s crucial to impart focus on building awareness of threats rather than simple, bottom line knowledge. This should also be shared companywide, as you like to create a culture of awareness and ensure that no gaps in knowledge are left in different areas of the business.
In addition to exploring practical case examples and their associated losses, we’d also recommend describing perpetrators in detail along with their perceived motives.
By also focusing on information in cases that affected businesses similar to your own, you can help employees and key stakeholders to understand why people commit such crimes and how they go about executing their plans.
