Why Should Businesses Budget for Cybersecurity?

Your business is under attack right now – and you might not even know it. Hackers launch over 2,000 cyberattacks per day, according to IBM. That is about one attack every 39 seconds.  Businesses of all kinds and sizes are often targeted due to the mass amounts of information they store in their databases. Hackers are also evolving to get past cybersecurity defenses more and more.  

Cybercriminals are constantly looking for vulnerable businesses to target. That is why it is essential to have a decent-sized budget for cybersecurity measures for your business. Here are the top 10 reasons every business should budget for cybersecurity: 

1. Minimize Data Breaches 

A single cyberattack can cost your business more than just money – it can cost you your reputation and customers.  

The global average cost of a data breach in 2024 cost is about $4.88 million. But even for small businesses, the financial impact is devastating. With proper cybersecurity measures in place, you can minimize data breaches for your small businesses. With the increased dependence on cloud and online technologies, it is important to ensure that there are no vulnerabilities or access points for hackers to exploit. A dedicated cybersecurity team can keep track of any potential threats or breaches and stop them before they fully take over.  

2. Avoid Costly Legal Battles 

Having a budget for cybersecurity can help your business avoid costly and lengthy legal battles in the event of a data breach. Imagine waking up to a lawsuit because hackers stole your customers’ or patients' personal data. It happens every day. In 2023, T-Mobile was sued for $350 million after millions of customer data was stolen. Businesses also face reputation damage, compliance penalties, and customer and third-party lawsuits. These types of legal battles can easily bankrupt a business, especially a small-to-medium-sized one.  

3. Guarantee Customer’s Data is Protected 

By dedicating resources to proper cybersecurity measures, your business can help to ensure that customer data is protected. This is especially important for any business handling customers’ financial and personal data. Financial data breaches account for 10% of all cyberattacks. Maintaining privacy and security in a digital landscape is essential for all businesses. Stolen data can be held for ransom or used to hack into other customer accounts. By ensuring consumer data is protected, your business can build strong and long-lasting relationships with customers.  

4. Ensure Cybersecurity Compliance 

Many industries have rules and regulations that must be followed in order to comply with the laws. If a business does not follow regulations, they can be fined large sums.  

Think of compliance as a health inspection for your business. If you do not meet the requirements (ex. HIPAA, GDPR, PCI), regulators may shut you down, or fine you heavily.

For example, Spotify was fined a little over $5 million for breaching GDPR regulations in 2023. If your business does experience a data breach, it may be subject to extensive audits and regulatory checks. There may even be penalties and other fines involved. To avoid this, it is essential to budget effectively for cybersecurity. If your business does not budget for cybersecurity, you are one breach or cybersecurity incident away from a legal nightmare.  

5. Avoid Long Periods of Downtime 

What would happen if your business wasn’t operational for two weeks? No emails. No invoices. No customer orders. Just a blank screen on your computers with a hacker demanding an inordinate amount of money, because they know how much you bring in on a monthly basis. While any business experiencing downtime is unfortunate, it is especially troublesome for the healthcare industry.  

According to a CompariTech article, the average length of downtime in a medical organization is 14 days. This can affect patient care and disrupt vital operations. Security breaches can also cost medical organizations great amounts. In 2023, the cost of downtime to medical organizations due to cyber-attacks was estimated to be $15.5 million.  

Downtime is not just lost time – it is lost revenue, lost customers, and lost trust. Hackers do not care if you are a large corporation or a small business. To avoid downtime altogether, allow a budget for a dedicated cybersecurity team to monitor your systems to prevent breaches and attacks.  

6. Your Competitors Are Already Investing in Cybersecurity 

The smartest small businesses are already increasing their cybersecurity budgets – because they know the cybersecurity threat landscape and how it is evolving. 22% of SMBs allocated funds or increased their cybersecurity budget to stay ahead of cyber threats. Falling behind on cybersecurity measures means you are not just vulnerable to hackers but also losing customer trust to competitors who take cybersecurity seriously. If you had to choose between two businesses, one with cybersecurity in place to protect your data, and the other does not. Which business do you trust to handle your data? 

7. Foster Long-Lasting Success 

By creating a budget for cybersecurity, you can feel secure in expanding your business, knowing it is well-protected. You can continue to add customer information to any database and know that it will remain secure so long as they are a customer of your business. Your customers will also feel secure and are more likely to stay loyal without fear of their personal information being stolen during a data breach. In a 2024 breach, over 560 million Ticketmaster customers had their information stolen. This has caused the public to have massive mistrust towards this ticket site, and as a result, they will lose customers to other vendors.  

8. Ransomware Costs More Than Prevention 

Hackers love SMBs because they know that about half of them will pay a ransom rather than fight back. About 51% of small businesses that get hit by ransomware pay the ransom – but hackers do not always return the data or change the encryption key. Giving your money to a hacker due to ransomware is like giving your money to a thief with the hope that they will be honest. Instead of taking this risk, budgeting for cybersecurity services or solutions can help prevent cyber-attacks like ransomware. Investing in preventative cybersecurity measures that cost a fraction of what recovery does can go a long way. It is always cheaper to prevent an attack than to pay for the damage afterward. 

9. Keep Up with the Latest Information 

A cybersecurity team can help you and your business stay up to date on the latest trends and threats. This is important information to know if you want to be a part of keeping your business safe. Hackers are constantly evolving and improving their tactics, so it is important to always be aware of the latest threats. Cybersecurity specialists can quickly learn how to protect against these emerging trends and ensure your business remains protected.  

10. Provide Employee Training  

One of the best ways to keep your business secure is to properly train your employees and advise them on threats to watch out for. These types of threats can include phishing, malware, fake websites, social engineering, etc. Employees need to know how to navigate these issues and how to properly report them to a cybersecurity team. In the event of a breach due to employee error, it is a good idea to have a good cybersecurity budget to handle these issues.  

Keep Your Business Safe with Cybersecurity 

Investing in cybersecurity should be a priority for every business. There is no need for your business to be exposed to cyber threats when there are services out there to help secure your business.  

Hackers do not wait until you are ready. They attack when you least expect it. The good news is that you do not have to fight them alone. We offer comprehensive cybersecurity savings and employee training. Let us chat about how to fortify your business before an attack happens. Schedule your free 15-minute call with our team today.