News outlets are constantly sharing BIG numbers about the cost of a cyber attack on your business. An estimated $6 TRILLION per year will be lost for the next 3 years, due to cyber attacks. This number seems too big to actually understand how your business will be affected. It’s a big number, but it doesn’t mean much to the typical business owner/manager. So how much will a cyber attack cost you? It must take teams of attackers, spending a fortune, to rack up a $6 Trillion bill, right?
They spend $38.
According to cybersecurity firm Incapsula, a denial of service attack only cost $38 an hour to perform. The impact of these attacks cost an average of $40,000 an hour for businesses.
What does this mean for your business? How much will an attack cost you? It depends on the size of your business and where you’re located. In 2017, the average North American Enterprise business lost $1.3 million due to cyber attacks, and small businesses in North America lost $117,000 per attack.
There are a lot of different costs that build these totals, but what about the unmeasurable impacts that a cyber attack has on your business? The average business has 85% of their assets in digital form. After a breach what is the impact that on your shareholders? Your investors? Your customers? These costs are difficult to measure, but they are often the biggest cost to a business after a breach.
Our no-sales-pitch advice for small business and enterprise businesses: be proactive. What can you do? Protect your business with cybersecurity insurance, technical barriers such as firewalls, and make your employees an active participant in your cybersecurity program. It’s not just IT’s job to protect your business. It’s the decision makers, the technical experts, and every employee that has access to technology and information!