While many businesses know how important cyber security is, and take steps to prevent it, the serious impacts of any type of cyber crime can be more far-reaching than most companies expect. And if you’re not fully aware of the potential negative outcomes, you might not be taking all of the necessary precautions to protect your company data, and your customers and clients. So what are the potential impacts of cyber crime on SMBs? And how can you prevent these? Well, here at Creative Network Solutions, we are Manchester’s leading IT support and network services experts. From secure remote access services to business VoIP, we are the team you can count on. And this is our guide to everything you should know about keeping your company fully protected from cyber crime.
What are the potential impacts of cyber crime on SMBs?
There are a number of negative impacts that can be caused by any form of cyber attack or criminal cyber activity, especially for small to medium sized businesses. And currently, businesses of this size are being targeted more and more frequently, because of the lack of cyber security systems and measures in place. The potential impacts can include:
- Financial losses from theft of banking information- cyber criminals that use phishing scams for access to your businesses financial accounts can leave your company seriously out of pocket. This means you could struggle to pay business rates, property upkeep, employee wages, as well as order of new stock (if applicable), with the only alternative to get into more business debt.
- Financial losses from disruption of business- if your company website, server or data centre is hit with a cyber attack, its likely that your customers will not be able to place an order online, or book your services correctly. In fact, they may not be able to access any of your online content at all! As a result, you could see a large financial loss due to the disruption caused by cyber crime.
- High costs to rid your network of threats- ransomware is a type of cyber attack that encrypts and hides your accounts and company data, and then charges your company a large sum to release access back to you. Many companies feel forced to pay this cost, to keep service disruption to a minimum, but during this attack, hackers may have also stolen your account and financial details, as well as the personal information of your customers and clients. And this means you will then need to spend additional money increasing your cyber security and training your staff.
- Damage to your reputation after telling customers their information was compromised- if your company does face a cyber attack and this is disclosed to your customers, not only will they lose trust in your company, they may even decide to go elsewhere for their products or services. This may also damage your future relationship with customers and clients.
For more information or advice about any cyber security issues, and for professional, secure network solutions, why not ask the experts today, here at Creative Network Solutions.