A report by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) has revealed that 90% of large companies and 74% of small firms suffered cyber hacks in 2015. Amazingly, this has rocked up from the previous year at 81% (large companies) and 60% (small companies) however a merger between two organisations could help you become more cyber secure.
The average cyber hack costs small companies around £75,000 to £311,000 in 2015 in 2015 and £1.46m to £3.14m for larger companies. Worryingly, the report also revealed that almost a third (32%) of businesses have not carried out any form of security risk assessment in light of this revelation.
Law firm 2ndOpinionNow and IT specialist LAN2LAN have partnered to offer an innovative approach to cyber security. This allows companies to sign up to annual payments which provide access to LAN2LAN’s expertise and 2ndOpinionNow’s specialist legal advice via a dedicated point of contact available around the clock.
Chaman Salhan, CEO of 2ndOpinionNow, explains how such fees can offer businesses complete protection from the ever growing threat: “What’s unique about us is that we have experience dealing with serious fraud and we are able to educate companies and keep them up to date with the types of scams that are taking place now.
He adds: “A lot of the time, even the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are playing catch-up with cyber criminals. But if you are at the cutting edge-like we are with my work as a serious fraud supervisor- we can establish what’s happening and what the current threats are and help prevent them from taking place.”
One threat which can be tackled easily is avoiding employees using their personal mobile devices to access sensitive company information. If an employee’s device is hacked, cyber criminals can access sensitive business information such as bank account details, personal information and your client base information; basically the information which makes you unique to your market place, which can have a devastating effect if it falls into the wrong hands.
In light of this, the European Union has proposed legislation which could see firms fined up to 5% of their global turnover in the event of such breaches, therefore reinforcing the need for cyber security.
Salhan explains the financial affects this could have: “If you are a business with a profit margin of 10% and have a breach, then a fine of 5% of global turnover has suddenly halved your profits. If you don’t address this cyber threat, you could be losing from a third up to a half of your profits every year.”
Of course, there are not only the financial worries of a cyber hack but the loss of company’s reputation. “As a business, if you have a breach you lose the faith of your customers and employees and you could even end up in a situation where there are regulatory issues on top of financial loss.” States Salhan.
At first, you could be mistaken to think that a cyber hack may incur financial ruin but in fact, if you look a little deeper, the fallout could be bigger than expected.
Therefore, it may be time to address if you’re cyber secure.