You’re Better Off Giving Your Employees A £1000 Bonus Than Penny Pinching With Technology

You’re Better Off Giving Your Employees A £1000 Bonus Than Penny Pinching With Technology

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Imagine for a minute, that you’re the CEO of a promising new start-up. In the beginning, it was just you and two other employees working on dinky PCs out of a 12-by-12-foot office, but times are picking up and the company is heading into the uncharted waters of rapid growth.

As the business moves into the public eye and, in turn, the hungry eyes of potential hackers, it’s becoming obvious that you’re going to need to lock down your data. At this critical stage, a cyber-attack could mean the death of everything you and your team have built up.

But the budget is looking lean. Everything you’ve done so far has been by the skin of your teeth, so why should security be any different? You put one of your more tech-savvy employees on the case, tasking him or her with finding the cheapest cyber security solutions available. OK, they may not be an expert, but they understand computers. What could go wrong?

Your employee scours the web, perusing dozens of “Top 5 Cheap Firewall Software” articles, and, with the help of a free (of course), online, how-to guide, installs what seems to be the best of the lot on your servers and across all your computers. The entire process takes 10 hours and costs the company next to nothing.

Potential crisis averted, you turn your attention to other matters. We’ll revisit cyber security later you think, once we have a little more financial wiggle room.

Across the following year, the company’s success skyrockets. The phone is ringing off the hook, new business is flooding in and your profit margin is exploding. That is, until the day that you get hacked. One morning, an advanced strain of ransomware easily sidesteps your free antivirus and starts wreaking havoc. It slithers through your systems and locks you out of everything, from client data to basic Word documents, and encrypts it behind a paywall demanding £50,000 in Bitcoin or you’ll lose access to all of it - forever.

This may sound like nothing more than a horror story, but in reality, this happens to business owners all over the world each and every day. An IBM security study from last December discovered that over half of businesses surveyed had paid over £10,000 in ransomware payoffs, with 20% paying over £40,000. And that’s not even including the millions of pounds of damage caused by other forms of malicious software every year. The fact is, when your time, money and business are on the line, it simply doesn’t pay to be cheap when choosing your cyber security technology.

Free antivirus software, giveaway cyber-protection, or using the free firewall from your ISP seems like a great idea, until a hacker cuts through your company’s defences like a warm knife through butter. These guys love it when they see these outdated, cheapo barriers guarding your priceless data - those are the paper-thin defences that keep hackers in business. You wouldn’t buy a rusty, second hand old lock for your house, so why are you installing primitive cyber security software to protect your most precious company resources?

In today’s world of rampant cybercrime, it’s inevitable that somebody will come knocking at your digital door. When that day comes, do you want a free piece of software, or a tried-and-tested, up-to-the-minute, comprehensive security solution?

Don’t be short sighted and risk everything just to save a few pounds. Invest in your company’s future, and protect yourself with the most powerful tools available on the market. Listen and take advice of the experts.

Review, Plan, Budget, Action, Repeat - Your Cyber Security Strategy, Before It’s Too Late.

If you have any questions regarding this article, or any other IT related issue, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am always very happy to help and advise.

Chris Ward - chrismward@vermont.co.uk