Cyber Attacks:  The Cost to Big Businesses

Not a week goes by that we don’t hear of another crippling cyber-attack on a major company in the U.S. Target, Sony, Anthem, Home Depot, Staples, Kmart, UPS, the list goes on and on.  Who’s next?  When will it hit?  Will it be you? 

When examining the loss to each business, we find that the numbers are often kept as quiet as possible in fear of loss to reputation. We hear of the big numbers, how manycustomers’ credit or debit card numbers were breached, but what about the hidden costs? What are those hidden costs?

When an attack occurs where millions of records are breached, a company must spend millions on investigation, remediation, notification to customers, regulatory fines, disruptions to business operations, and obviously lost business. In most occasions, companies have not had proper security in place and now need to hire outside security firms to begin protecting their company. 

Target was first hit on November 27^th, 2013.  The attackers sat in their network for three weeks until Target realized their presence on December 18th.  By this point the damage was done, over 100 million customer records were breached. Target’s total loss is estimated at over $2.5 billion:  $500 million in stock losses,  $75 million in sales, $1.1 Billion in lawsuits, $50 million in a new security plan (figuring security consultation at $200-$300/hour).

The biggest loss isn’t the lawsuits or the new security plan; it’s the hit to reputation. Since the hit, Target has closed over 145 stores in the U.S and Canada and is planning to shut the doors on 13 more by the end of January 2016.  Do you feel comfortable giving Target your credit card information now?

How do you prevent an attack on your network?  Anti-virus and Firewall are simply not enough anymore; these constant attacks prove that.   Brian Dye, president at Symantec even admits that anti-virus is “dead” and states that AV is only 45% effective.  For a business to stay protected, it is vital to evolve into the 21^st century of defense:  a managed cyber-security firm.

At WatchPoint Data, we use intelligent software with a real-time response team. When a major threat attacks your network you have “the golden hour” of response; if the threat is detected within one hour damage will be almost none.  Can your current plan detect and respond to a threat this quickly? Ours can. What would happen to your business if all of your customers’ data was breached?  Is that a phone call you feel comfortable making to your client base?