As a business, you need to invest in tech infrastructure including building a robust digital presence if you are to stay competitive.
As you invest in tech, though, it is vital to remember that there are escalating cybersecurity threats to your business that might lead to costly breaches.
According to stats by Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime is predicted to grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025.
The threat landscape is always evolving and the best defense as a business is to invest in cybersecurity.
Let’s look into reasons why cybersecurity is important for business Growth.
Leverage New Technology For Growth
Remember, the business world is highly competitive.
If you fail to seize new opportunities, your opponents might overtake you and grab hold of your market share.
Prioritizing cybersecurity enables you to leverage new tech like cloud computing, AI and Blockchain to improve your business operations.
Of course, you will be more confident to expand your venture with robust tech.
You will be able to mitigate the fear of cybersecurity breaches that puts your business and clients at risk.
Grow Your Customer Trust And Loyalty
The growing number of security-related means that customers are now more aware or rather worried about their safety online.
To put this into perspective, a survey done by Exclaimer found that 84% of clients would abandon a website if they felt the server was insecure.
Implementing cybersecurity protocol on your website and point-of-sale terminals helps your clients trust you and gives them a reason to choose you over your rivals in the same niche.
Enhance Compliance
Government and other authorities are also keeping tabs on the rapid shift towards digitization.
They also understand that businesses might go rogue and take advantage of unsuspecting clients if no measures are in place to regulate their online activities.
There are now laws stipulating that you must have adequate measures in place to protect sensitive customer data from unwanted third parties.
In the US, for example, both state and federal governments are introducing new regulations to improve cybersecurity.
In the EU, there is the Cybersecurity Act, which was amended in April 2023 to enable the adoption of European certification schemes for ‘managed security services’ covering many areas starting from consultancy to penetration testing.
There are also laws like the GDPR to protect how businesses handle personal information.
So, investing in cybersecurity solutions allows you to stay on the right side of the law.
Failure to comply with these requirements could lead to the closure of your business.
Protects Sensitive Assets
In addition to protecting your client’s sensitive data, like credit card information, you also have to consider the safety of your company information.
Without robust cybersecurity measures, cybercriminals and malicious rivals can steal precious information about your suppliers, business process, and customer data to use for their own gain.
Clients might sue you for mishandling the data they entrusted you with.
You will also face fine for any data breach as per laws and regulations.
This is well illustrated by a 2021 data breach case of Marriott International hotel who were fined 18.4 million pounds for failing to secure customer data.
Well, investing in cybersecurity keeps your business data safe from prying eyes and reduces the likelihood of facing such costly lawsuits.
Saves Your Business Money
Of course, avoiding cybersecurity issues ends up saving you money in the long-run.
One research done by Parachute found that it can take your business up to eight months to recover from a cybersecurity breach!
In fact, most small businesses never recover and end up closing their doors.
This is why cybersecurity solutions save you money by creating a wall of protection around your business that prevents cybercriminals from stealing precious data or money.
You are better off spending money on cybersecurity defense than counting your losses after an attack occurs.
Enhance Your Website User Experience
Your clients can learn everything they need to know about you by perusing your website.
A robust online presence can meet and exceed your client’s expectations and encourage them to purchase from you.
Threats like DDoS and DOS attacks can slow or shut down your business website.
This can affect services that rely on your business website, like purchases and other transactions.
Therefore, you need to invest in cybersecurity measures to protect your business.
Start by encrypting communication between end users and your business website.
You can use a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate like single domain, multi domain or wildcard SSL to encrypt traffic between your web servers and your users.
This will protect the data you exchange from an eavesdropper in between.
A secure website is also good for your traffic given that Google tends to rank secure and valuable business websites higher.
It Keeps You On Your Toes
The IT landscape, much like the business realm, hardly remains static.
New trends keep emerging every waking moment, meaning you cannot afford to start slacking.
In addition, cybercriminals are getting better at finding loopholes you did not think existed.
In other words, investing in cybersecurity keeps your guard up and encourages you to keep abreast with current trends.
You will also learn the tactics that have worked best for your rivals and what they have implemented to stay on top of their game and keep the cybercriminals at bay.
Build Trust with Partners, Investors & Stakeholders
Business is all about choosing the right partners to liaise with and forge a path to success.
Investors are also constantly on the lookout for budding entrepreneurs to help bring their vision to life and get a return on their investment.
Unfortunately, nobody would want to partner with you if you skimp on prioritizing cybersecurity.
It would be a shame to put another business at risk because you failed to do what they did to secure themselves.
Implementing an effective cybersecurity system increases the chance of expanding your relationships and creating new ones to spur business growth.
Streamline Your Business Operations
Well, a robust security system makes it easier for you to do business.
In addition to keeping cybercriminals at bay, you can use your system to automate crucial yet repetitive tasks that take too much time.
Sealing all the loopholes and vulnerabilities in your business also improves your efficiency and allows you to focus on more crucial tasks since you know a cybercriminal can’t get past your defenses.
Increased efficiency leads to a boost in productivity in the long run, allowing you to generate more revenue and make future plans for your business.
Wrapping Up
Failing to invest in cybersecurity as business opens you up to a host of evolving threats.
You are at risk of exposing your business to costly downtimes and data breaches that might lead to costly lawsuits.
You also risk ruining your business reputation.
Remember, partners and clients might be scared to work and transact with your business.
The bottom line is that you should invest in cybersecurity if your business is to tap into tech for growth!
