3 Data Loss Statistics to Convince You to Protect Your Business Today

It's the age of cybercrime. Every year hackers get more and more sophisticated, making emails look far too legitimate or even impersonating employees via text to get access into your business. Unfortunately, it just takes on minor error, a simple click, to change the trajectory of your business. Data loss is a chilling thought. Hopefully if you don't already, we can convince you to take the necessary steps that protect your business today. 

While there may be some debate on whether or not ransomware is on the rise, it's certainly something we have to be prepared for on a daily basis. If you're not protected, you're opening your businesses hard-earned money, partnerships, and, most importantly, data to find itself in the hands of the enemy.  You might, recover, you might now but either way, the impact will be detrimental to your business and the trust you've built. Don't believe me? 

"60 percent of small companies go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or cyber attack." 

Cybercrime Magazine 

Because of the ransom amounts, hackers are debilitating SMBs and their businesses. On top of that, you're liable for the trust you lose after a breach. How can you guarantee it won't happen again? Partner draft away and customers defect to another, more protected organizations. Additionally, companies are spending, on average, near $1 million dollars per ransomware attack. In fact, according to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report (2023), "the global average cost of a data breach in 2023 was USD 4.45 million, a 15% increase over 3 years." To add insult to injury, the scramble post-attack to recover your business is just more difficult for SMBs. You have less resources and even if you do decide to implement protection practices after the event, it's often too little too late.

Not only should you be protected now, but you need to plan for the worst case scenario in the future. Evaluate your current MSPs practices, strategize an Incident Response Plan (IRP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), and make sure you're covered even if an attack does happen. It's paramount to be prepared and supported by an IT team that has a proven track record of proactive protection and getting you back on track in the even of an emergency. 

“Business Email Compromise: The $50 Billion Scam...The BEC (Business Email Compromise) scam has continued to evolve, targeting small local businesses to larger corporations, and personal transactions. Between December 2021 and December 2022, there was a 17% increase in identified global exposed losses."

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Let's reiterate something in this quote: "targeting small local businesses." So not only are you more likely to close after an attack, but cybercriminals are actively targeting your business. You are not immune to an attack. Believing that you IT team can just "deal with it" could cause you to contribute the $50, 871, 249, 501 paid domestically and internationally to this cybercriminal scam. 

It's worth the money spent, the time allotted, and companies saves to prepare accordingly for an attack and protect your data immediately. Many of our C-STACK solutions are proven to prevent you from being susceptible to these numbers. 

Still, don't be fooled that every hacker asks for astronomical amounts. 

“Researchers have identified a new strain of ransomware that dates back to 2019 and targets individuals and small businesses, demanding small ransoms from each client rather than the often million-dollar sums that typical ransomware actors ask.”

DarkReading.com

This is a sticky one to wrap your head around. Why would they do this? Go big or go home, right? How does a small amount impact me? Couple things here. 

The "why" is fairly straight forward. Consider if someone breaks into your car ands steals something. Regardless of it's personal value, if the the items' monetary value do not add up to $500, you can't prosecute the thieves even if you do find them. You can file a police report, sure, but you can't guarantee you'll recover appropriately from that attack. The same is true for low level threat actors. They think if they only demand smaller ransoms from smaller businesses, they can fly under the radar undetected and ultimately, never prosecuted or corrected. They can then continue to hack businesses (even yours for a second time, that's if they give you your data back in the first place) and no one will care because they're largely undetected and reported! 

The "how" is a little less straightforward but just as important. The evidence is stacked against you. It's easy to believe that if you're small, no one will really want what you have. It's not worth as much as a larger company's data, right? They have more and therefore they're easier targets? But if you're a smaller healthcare organization, all they have to do is attack your small business for a small amount, copy down your patients' info, receive their minimal pay out, and turn to hacking your patients' next. You report it, but they're not attacking a business anymore - they've stolen identities and have access to more bank accounts than your healthcare organization could've afforded them. 

Small doesn't always mean insignificant. It just means they have more room to grow. 

How Do I protect My Business from Data Loss?

All industries are being targeted across the SMB space. Healthcare has been taking a beating with "707 incidents last year, in which 51.9 million records were stolen" and a staggering " 95% of all identity theft incidents reportedly come from compromised healthcare records." Additionally, manufacturing and utilities companies are losing money fast to hackers. It doesn't matter what kind of business you have, if you have data and money, you're a target. 

We recommend partnering now with a trusted and vetted MSP who can promise proactive protection of your data. Once you align yourself with them, focus on building our and Incident Response Plan (IRP) that is succinct but detailed enough to keep you on your feet in the event of an attack. If you have on already, we applaud you! But we also recommend a refresh or at minimum a check-in to make sure your IRP is up to snuff. If you need some help, check out these tips on designing an effective IRP. 

When all else fails, we're here to help. Contact us to protect your business TODAY.