Most business owners worry at least occasionally about being
the victims of a hacker. However, many don’t take even the most basic steps to
protect themselves against cyber criminals.
In our experience, this disparity between their anxiety and
the amount of effort they put into protecting themselves from the unknown has a
couple of causes. The first is that a lot of business people simply don’t know
what it takes to keep their data protected. They aren’t even sure where to
start. And secondly, they tend to heavily underestimate the costs of being
hacked.
The average business owner understands that there are going
to be expenses associated with being hacked. Namely, they expect to pay for
repairs to computers and websites. Those charges can be quite extensive, but
they actually represent the easiest and cheapest part of the problem.
If your small business is successfully targeted by hackers,
you also have to look out for a pair of hidden (and often devastating) costs
you might not expect. Let’s take a quick look at each one…
The Loss of
Productivity for You and Your Team
Once a hacker gets into your computers or website, your
business will essentially grind to a halt. You may not be able to sell
products, accept payments, or even contact customers or vendors through email.
At the same time, employees will probably be sitting around
waiting for an IT team to come and make needed repairs or replacements. They’ll
be on the clock and getting paid, but not generating any new revenue. Meanwhile,
your customers may seek out alternative products or services from your
competitors when you aren’t able to give them what they need.
This loss of productivity and revenue is likely to amount to
a lot more than what you’ll pay a technology team to sort out the problem. And
yet, it’s still not likely to add up to the other significant costs you will have
to bear.
The Damage Done to
Your Credibility and Reputation
Once your business has been hacked, you could have a hard
time winning back the trust of your customers. If your website and
communications have been down they’ll think of you as unreliable. If they
received phony messages from your company, or if hackers gained access to
information like passwords and financial details then buyers might not ever
forgive you.
Having your reputation diminished in this way, and losing
the trust of your most important customers, can represent a permanent shift
your company. In many cases, it can actually put a small firm out of business
altogether.
Protecting Your
Business is Easier and Less Expensive Than You Think
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to protect your small
business from hackers and online thieves. Working with a good IT partner, you
can take advantage of stronger passwords, security software, firewalls, and
automatic data backups to prevent criminals from breaking into your company…
and to mitigate the damage if they do happen to get access to your files.
Instead of worrying about the future, why not contact the
Kinetik IT team today so we can get to work safeguarding your devices and
important data? It only takes a moment to schedule an initial consultation and
you could be amazed at what it will do for your peace of mind.