- March 19, 2020
- Tags: Financial Services, Managed Service Providers
Most people may not realize it at first, but an information security program can actually increase a business’s bottom line in addition to helping mitigate cybersecurity risk
Often, when business owners think about cybersecurity, they often think about hackers, phishing and ransomware. While protecting a business against all of those threats is the main benefit to implementing an information security program, I can assure you it most often will also lead to increased revenue and potentially lower costs.
Here are four ways an information security program can increase a business’s bottom line.
- Increase efficiency
- Increase resiliency
- Increase trust and loyalty with existing customers
- Decrease operational cost
Increase Efficiency
Whether you are building an information security program from scratch or maturing an established one, most often some of the first steps that need to be taken are identifying weak points in workflow and processes. This obviously helps to reduce the potential cybersecurity risks associated with those processes, but it will also help to optimize them and make them more efficient.
Market research firm IDC found that businesses lose 20 to 30 percent of their revenue each year due to inefficiencies. As a business grows so do their processes and often instead of restructuring all processes to find the most efficient way to add a new one, the new process will get added without much thought. A new process that gets added without thought could add redundancy or bottlenecking into the process workflow. For example, having to type or copy/paste data into two systems, having to talk to two people separately about the same information, having a single point of failure or having a group of people be at a standstill until one task is completed.
As part of an information security program, a workflow analysis can lead to elimination of unnecessary steps in a process or redundant processes altogether which leads to increased efficiency which leads to lower costs, higher output, and better quality. All of which will add to that bottom line on a company’s balance sheet.
Increase Resiliency
Applying the CIA triad is ensuring Confidentiality and Integrity are maintained while also being Available to whatever is being protected.
Information security is the practice of IT professionals applying the CIA triad to information, business processes and IT assets.
An information security program consists of policies and procedures on how the business is applying the CIA triad to protect its sensitive information and assets.
- Small business (fewer than 500 employees): $3,000 per day
- Midsize business (501-999 employees): $23,000 per day
- Large business (1000+ employees): $84,000 per hour
Having a disaster continuity plan can save a small business in the event of a disaster yet less than 17% of the 30 million small businesses in the U.S. have an effective disaster continuity plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency found that 43% of small businesses are unable to re-open after a disaster and the ones that do have a bankruptcy rate of 25% within two years.
Having a disaster continuity plan as part of your information security program results in increased resiliency and decreased downtime which increases the bottom line.
Increase trust and loyalty with existing customers and strengthen your public brand to generate new business
Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
Customer trust in businesses is fading. A 2017 survey conducted by PwC found that 75% of customers believe companies handle their sensitive personal information carelessly. Eighty-seven percent of customers in the survey said they would take their business elsewhere if they feel a company is handling their data irresponsibly.
By adopting and complying with a commonly known cybersecurity framework, an organization can give it’s clients an added level of assurance that it can protect their sensitive information and continue providing products and services during adverse events. This added assurance can lead to larger contracts and longer relationships with clients.
By becoming certified in one of these frameworks, an organization can strengthen their public brand as well, which can lead to new client development and additional revenue.
Decrease Operational Cost
No business starts out with the goal to use five different pieces of software to meet five different needs when one robust piece of software will meet all five needs.
For example, a new business can start out with one piece of software that handles their HR needs. As their business scales and their operations grow, the business realizes they now have HR software, inventory software, accounting software, project management software and ticketing software. Now the business needs to maintain five separate pieces of software.
An information security program would have a change management policy that would analyze each change and prevent a business from accumulating numerous pieces of software when one piece of robust software would decrease operational cost and increase the bottom line.
Increase the bottom line
An information security program is critical to the success of any business. An information security program allows a business to apply the CIA triad which ensures Confidentiality and Integrity are maintained while also being Available to any the business is protecting.
The number one goal of a business is to increase revenue. Applying the CIA triad through an information security program helps a business increase efficiency, increase resiliency, increase trust and loyalty with existing customers and decrease operational cost which results in an increase to the business’s bottom line.
References
- https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/blog/post/6-starter-tips-withstand-dangers-small-businesses
- https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/cybersecurity-protect-me.html
- https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312406
With offices in Denver, Orlando, Tampa, Nashville and Washington D.C GoldSky offers reliable 24/7/365 security solutions to the entire US.
Get in touch to learn more about how GoldSky can keep your data secure today.
