Are you worried about the impact of hackers on your large or small business?
If not, you might not have all the facts. The risk of a cyberattack gets larger every year. Even small businesses are increasingly vulnerable since they often don’t take the risk as seriously as larger businesses do.
Black-hat hackers are always on the lookout for new businesses to attack. But what are the repercussions of a cyberattack, and why should you care?
This article will help explain what hacking is and how it can negatively affect your business.
What is Hacking/What is a Cyberattack?
Hacking happens when someone gains access to private records and data without permission.
Often, the easiest way for a cyberattack to happen is when an employee’s password is compromised. It’s easy for this to happen because most employees don’t consider information security to be part of their job.
Whether they use a very weak password (such as password123 or their pet’s name), tell someone else their password, or write their password on a sticky note by their computer, hackers can easily gain access to this information.
Hackers use a process called password cracking to guess someone’s data. If the hacker knows personal information about someone, this can be as easy as guessing their mother’s maiden name or their favorite food.
Another extremely common way for hackers to attack companies is through phishing. Phishing occurs when a hacker creates a fake website that looks official. The hacker will send a malicious email to a very large group of people, asking them to enter their information into the fake website. Anyone who enters their password into that website is then compromised.
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Once a hacker gains access to an employee’s data, they have access to everything that employee can see or do. If that employee deals with sensitive or confidential records, the hacker can now do whatever they like with that information. A company getting hacked might not even realize it until it’s too late, and the hacker has stolen huge amounts of important data.
There are many different methods by which a hacker can gain access to sensitive data, and all of them can have a serious impact on the short and long-term operations of any business.
Impact of Hackers on A Business
Hackers impact on business around the world can’t be overemphasized. Whether a hacker steals your customers’ usernames and passwords, email addresses, or payment info, it can have a serious impact on a business’s reputation and longevity. A hacker also might steal other sensitive data from a company, such as employee information, confidential records, and other items.
Theft of Data
When a hacker gains access to a business’s data, they can steal it and do whatever they like with it. Often, hackers will sell data to other criminals, who use it for nefarious purposes. Health records, payment information, accounting records, user data, and other important documents are all frequent targets of data theft.
Financial Damage
It can be very expensive to repair the damages from a cyberattack. Many companies that did not hire IT and security companies before a breach end up paying extra for cleanup services.
Damage to Reputation
One of the main concerns about cyberattacks is the irreversible damage it has on a company’s reputation. Customers often lose faith in the company and see it as untrustworthy. As a result, businesses lose important clients who feel that their data is now insecure.
Recently, fitness tech giant Garmin was the victim of a massive ransomware cyberattack. Not only did this attack have a large financial impact on the company, but many customers have lost faith in Garmin as a result of this security breach.
Legal Consequences
Along with the financial and reputation costs of a cyberattack, there can often be serious legal consequences as well. Companies that are found to have been negligent with their data security are often forced to pay fines or remediation costs. Often, these companies are also subjected to government audits.
Extreme Consequences of Company Getting Hacked
In extreme cases, hackers’ impact on business might even cause a company to go out of business. Losing clients due to cyberattacks is very common and very serious. If the company loses many of its clients and much of its reputation and has to pay too much to clean up the mess, it may no longer be viable.
In this post, we discuss how to save your organization from cyber attacks.