The effects of a security breach last far beyond the time it takes to contain and remedy the attack. According to the 2021 Cost of a Data Breach report, the cost of a breach in 2021 was $4.24 million. The high price tag is because when a major IT breach occurs, an organization will face upfront costs like ransom demands, investigations into the breach, and solutions to ensure it doesn’t happen again. But there are also plenty of other hidden costs that come to fruition later on.
Legal Costs
When customer data is exposed or stolen, thousands of individuals can be affected. Depending on the industry, the effects of a major IT breach could range from minimal to extremely severe. Industries such as healthcare and financial services usually have higher legal costs as a result of a data breach. That’s because they’re heavily regulated and they’re likely to pay more for compliance failures and breaches than other industries. However, if you’re not in the healthcare or financial service industry, you can still be looking at expensive legal costs.
Downtime
Time is money, and you lose both when you have a network breach. When you have a major IT breach, you’re forced to stop all that you’re doing to rectify the problem. That means you can’t provide services, you can’t sell products, you can’t conduct any business until there is a solution. Unfortunately, the average downtime a company experiences after a ransomware attack is 21 days. Twenty-one days of downtime has the potential to make a significant negative impact on your business.
Lost Business
When an IT breach occurs, it usually equates to lost business. In fact, lost business accounts for 38% of the total costs accrued from a major IT breach. Consumers and organizations do not want to share their personal information and data with a company that has IT breaches. When they do business with a company, they want to rest assured that their information is safe. News about the breach will instantly create negative news about the company and can stick in a prospective customer’s mind for a long time.
Compliance and Regulatory Fines
Most organizations are subject to strict guidelines regarding the protection of customer data, and compliance failure significantly increases the cost of an IT breach. Organizations with high compliance failures paid, on average, $2.3 million more for data breaches than those with low levels of compliance failures. Compliance and regulatory costs associated with an IT breach include things like fines, penalties, and lawsuits. It can also result in the loss of certification that allows a business to complete certain transactions.
Avoid IT Breaches with Blue Star Technologies
Blue Star Technologies is the best choice for OSP fiber optic construction, ISP network cabling, computer networking, and CCTV. We’ll construct a network infrastructure that is hard to infiltrate and will protect your company’s important information. We even offer network and system security to make sure that your business is always protected.
Contact us today to learn more.