How many organizations can do all their daily work without Information Technology?
In today’s economy, you need your computer systems almost as much as you need customers and something to sell them. And you need data about orders and customers at your fingertips, as well as theirs.
In fact, it can really hurt when your technology isn’t working correctly. Let’s look at two serious examples of what can go wrong.
Cyber Security Threats Can Cost Companies Millions
As a result of the 2017 NotPetya cyber-attack, TNT/FedEx and Maersk lost the use of their systems for many days. In the logistics world, if you can’t move data, you can’t move freight!
As a result, containers sat idle in shipyards all over the world (a cardinal sin) while Maersk lost over $500 million in expected profits. And TNT/FedEx saw a sharp increase in lost customers, with DHL appearing to be the main beneficiary.
Poor Cyber Hygiene Can Ruin Your Reputation
When the law firm Mossack Fonseca lost control of the data that is now known as The Panama Papers in 2016 due to the terrible cyber hygiene of their Internet-facing systems, their reputation was seriously injured across the world, as was the reputation of their customers.
Granted, many of their services were illegal, but without a reputation of complete discretion, they lost a large number of customers. The revenue hit (and financial penalties) caused them to close several branch offices and lay off many of their staff.
Here’s How Data Breaches Impact Your Company
Even highly ethical businesses can suffer measurable, unplanned churn in their customer base in the wake of a data breach. In the financial services industry, that can be 6% or more.
“2016 Cost of Data Breach Study” conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
Are You Managing All Your Cyber Risks?
When it comes to data breaches, you also have to manage the risks to confidential data in all its physical forms:
- Paper: Are you cross-shredding all printed documents with confidential information on it?
- Backup tapes: Is the data on them encrypted with a reputable program using strong encryption key management? If not, are the tapes stored under lock and key at all times at an off-site location and during transport?
- Thumb drives: Is the data on them encrypted with a reputable program using strong encryption key management? Have you told your team never to use a thumb drive that they find lying around?
- Portable hard drives: Is the entire drive encrypted? It’s almost inevitable you’ll lose track of a large percentage of these devices, so you need this level of protection.
- Fixed hard drives: Are these disks wiped whenever they are returned for warranty replacement? Are they either wiped or shredded when the computer itself is recycled? If you are using a reputable whole drive encryption approach with strong encryption key management, the good news is there’s no need to either wipe or destroy them.
Cyber Risk Opportunities helps middle market companies avoid costly outages and data breaches by prioritizing and reducing your top cyber risks, including the specific requirements of PCI, HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001, DFARS, and more.
Get in touch today to learn more and take advantage of a free 30-minute Q&A session with one of our cyber risk experts. Call 253-332-7867, or email us at info@cyberriskopportunities.com.