This year, cybersecurity is the main concern of executives at all companies. In each sector, shifting consumer sentiments, increasing costs, and increased government regulation have made this issue inevitable. A single breach can cost a company a huge amount of money but the impact goes beyond monetary. Consumers of a company that experience a breach would stop interacting with a brand, depriving the business of a vital opportunity to connect with their consumers as they recover from the incident. At the same time, privacy regulations such as Europe’s GDPR indicate a wave of government supervision coming to organisations across the globe.
Today’s data landscape is especially challenging to navigate for small businesses. These businesses consider cybersecurity as a bottom-line issue so they must get this aspect right to avoid bankrupty.
Read on to know why small businesses are vulnerable to data breaches:
They Run their Business with Limited Budgets
Small businesses usually have fewer resources to dedicate to cybersecurity initiatives than big corporations. Unluckily, this disparity is known to cyber criminals, making small businesses susceptible to cybercrimes. And even if they are heavily dependent on tech capabilities, their budgets will limit their ability to achieve business ambitions and effectively deal with today’s cyber threats.
They Cannot Easily Hire Top Talent
Businesses that do not prioritise cybersecurity in their budgets will find it hard to acquire top cybersecurity talent. In fact, small businesses turn to less experienced personnel t protect their company data. At the same, such talent usually demands on-the-job training, limiting their effectiveness and increasing the cost of cybersecurity talent. Without top talent under a company’s umbrella, sensitive data protection and user management can be serious problems to deal with. Unfortunately, the employees responsible for protecting company data face alarming burnout rates. They are often assigned to manage high-stakes responsibilities that exceed their expertise.
But, data security should not be a hopeless endeavor for small businesses. They can take active steps to protect their information and their long-term viability. They can make this happen by investing in employee monitoring or data management software that can regulate data access and movement. Also, it is important to adopt automation in data protection. Today, they can tap into the effectiveness of software that comes equipped with automation tools to minimise the strain on overworked cybersecurity staff. Furthermore, small businesses can place automated restrictions on data movement or privacy controls. This will help in making sure data privacy is a priority down to the software level.
