With prominent cyber security breaches becoming a somewhat regular occurrence, including recent attacks on companies to hack money from customers, organizations around the country are frequently outgunned in the fight to protect their essential information. The importance of cyber security, as a result, is rising to become an integral part of an overall security plan and IT security team.

Cyber security isn’t an IT problem alone – it is a business imperative irrespective of the size of your business. Adopting a comprehensive security strategy at the right time can help your business avoid having to shut shop if hackers strike. A solid cyber security program will exempt you from bearing the costs associated with a data breach.

FROM DAY ONE. Cyber security planning needs to start with your business planning. You will be far too busy to work on it “later”, and trying to implement security controls once you have been breached is a nightmare.

Just a few years ago, technology strategy followed business strategy or sometimes it was just a footnote in a business plan. This has changed dramatically as now technology has evolved and now dictates the business strategy.

Every time a new technological capability is added, stakeholders need to think about how to secure it: email, sensitive documents, online accounts, bank accounts and SaaS applications etc.. They have to think about detection, remediation, recovery and have those capabilities in place before they are needed.

Cyber security planning essentially needs to start along with business planning. Otherwise, it might be akin to handing the business over to someone else.

It doesn’t matter how big or small a business is, or whether its annual revenue places it on the Fortune 500 list. Any enterprise is a potential target for Cybercrime.

While recent cyber attacks have highlighted the importance of cyber security for some of world’s biggest companies, it is important for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) as well to protect themselves.

SMBs generally do not earmark sufficient funds to bolster their cyber security defences. As a consequence, 43% of cyber attacks target small business, and 60% of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyber attack.

Cyber security is often neglected as businesses assume it is someone else’s problem or their data is not worth stealing. A business website that does not get updated regularly is a high security risk as it reveals vulnerabilities that invites hackers. Here is a common scenario depicting how businesses neglect security and its consequences.

Despite abundant reasons to invest in protecting data and network, many businesses still do not have security on their radar. By neglecting/delaying to continually monitor, detect and respond to security incidents, companies are exposing themselves to potential losses on a daily basis.

Each organization is unique in terms of the impact of a breach, dependent on the timing and duration, and the industry in which it operates.  An awareness about the common impacts on your business in case of a data breach will help understand how crucial it is to have a robust cyber security in place, for the business.