If that headline is not enough to scare you, the byline certainly should! "The COVID-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge for businesses around the world as it seems their dispersed workforce have little regard for IT security and mobile phishing - a threat vector being increasingly used to target remote workers."
What makes this even more frightening and somewhat unbelievable is that by now you would think that companies would have a better handle on this and would provide the necessary training and policies to make this a nonissue. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
At a time when more and more companies have announced extended (i.e. well into 2021) or permanent work from home policies, cybersecurity awareness training is more important than ever.
In the most recent reports, the average cost of a data breach in the United States is $8.64 million dollars. Perhaps you are thinking that your business is too small to be victimized by data pirates, consider this. 28% of all data breaches in the USA involved small businesses. The average cost to a small business for a data breach is $36,000-$50,000 and this does not take into account the public relations nightmare caused by the data breach, loss of confidence in your business by customers and employees as well as lost productivity. I can assure you that proper cybersecurity awareness training is far less expensive.
I well understand that COVID-19 has placed unbelievable burdens (financial and otherwise) on we small business owners but we cannot ignore threats to our businesses. Perhaps a worthy analogy is business insurance. Even though the economy has faltered and the pandemic has impacted companies of all sizes, we did not eliminate our various insurance policies to protect our employees and business. Cybersecurity awareness training should not be thought of any differently.
If you would like to learn more about ways to protect your business from data pirates, please contact us for a free no-charge consultation.
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