A successful cyberattack on your business can be extremely costly. These costs may include legal fees, financial information leaks, hardware damage, investigations, and other financial consequences. But there are also indirect costs to a successful cyberattack. Several of these indirect costs can come from a loss of reputation.
Depending on the type of business you have and the damage of the cyberattack, the aftermath can affect the business’s reputation in different ways. The business can experience sales loss due to clients or customers no longer trusting it with their information. Also, investors or potential investors may anticipate a loss of sales and act accordingly, or often a mix of the two.
While a business can withstand a temporary loss of revenue due to customer or client distrust, a dip in business, combined with a lack of funding from investors and the direct costs of a cyberattack, can be financially devastating.
Unfortunately, negative attention from media or government bodies compounds these reputational issues. Suppose a government begins to investigate a business for noncompliance with cybersecurity policies. In that case, the business is even more likely to appear careless, especially if the investigation finds cases of noncompliance. It is easy to be accidentally noncompliant with some cybersecurity standards because of how many different cybersecurity laws exist in the United States, not to mention all the laws in other countries that may protect the information of your customers or clients.
Additionally, after a cyberattack, the wrong type of media attention may also cause potential customers or investors to believe the business is carelessly run. For instance, if an investigation occurs or a cyberattack directly victimizes clients, the carelessness that allowed a cyberattack to be successful may make a compelling news story.
The good news is that many successful cyberattacks are due to carelessness. If you keep up with modern cybersecurity norms and policies, cyberattacks on your business are far less likely to be successful. The stronger your business’s cybersecurity, the more well-coordinated a cyberattack must be to cause a security breach.
Suppose your business is already known for having excellent cybersecurity. In that case, public focus may be more on the threat of whatever masterful malware can breach such a secure business rather than on the carelessness that allows a cyberattack to endanger client or customer information. Regardless of what the public notices in the event of a successful cyberattack, better cybersecurity reduces the chance of a cyberattack being successful in the first place.
A successful cyberattack can damage your business’s reputation with customers and investors, causing potential revenue loss and funding loss. Fortunately, these costs and the other costs cyberattacks may cause are more avoidable the stronger your cybersecurity is.
