Cybersecurity is one of those things in modern business that are tricky to estimate in terms of ROI. Yes, the digital landscape we have today is rich in data, making it ideal to measure but, at the same time, it has created fronts that are hard to assess in numbers.
The real problem of not knowing the cost and profit of cybersecurity in a business is that it may lead to neglect. Managers and owners who don’t understand the financials of it may quit halfway, being unable to grasp the importance of this investment.
When we don’t understand the ROI, most investments feel like a waste of resources. However, cybersecurity is too critical to go this way. Organizations must take the time to budget cybersecurity and get the numbers straight.
The Reasons Why
But why making this effort? Why take the time for cybersecurity budgeting in a smart, comprehensive, and informed way?
It’s simple: a modern organization must have a clear understanding of its current cybersecurity risks, manage them, and implement the measures to be prepared against them, all within a set budget.
Long gone are the days when a business could question if the investment in cybersecurity was justified or necessary. Data breaches are more and more costly every year as our dependence on IT resources grows fonder.
The Role of your Workforce
When we think of a cybersecurity budget, our minds must no go exclusively to technology but to manpower as well.
Cybersecurity awareness is growing at a healthy pace but the focus seems to be on IT tools and resources and less on skilled professionals who are actually essential for success. Market data shows that most SMBs are underserved when it comes to security experts, even if they have a budget in place for cybersecurity tools.
According to Kaspersky, the cost of a breach can easily be three times higher than the investment in cybersecurity talent. Recovering from an attack will be costly and every hour after it without skilled professionals treating the situation will exponentially increase the financial losses.
Choosing the Right Investments for the Mission
Once we understand that human resources are as equally important in cybersecurity as tools and tech, we can start evaluating what is next: where to put the money.
When budgeting for cybersecurity, businesses must evaluate how to invest their resources in a way that suits their need adequately.
Preparedness is the first component of the budget. Organizations must have a prepared in-house team that can take of the situation or, instead, count on a cybersecurity firm that fulfill this role from the outside. Even if you have a strong in-house team, it may be not fully prepared for all challenges involved in cybersecurity, compelling you to check the rest of the boxes with help from a third party (it’s completely okay).
Education is also a priority. Malicious agents will always look for the chain’s weakest link and very often that’s employees who have poor cybersecurity hygiene, creating opportunities for a successful attack.
Finally, tech. Effective cybersecurity solutions with threat detection tools such as Julie Security are game-changers for organizations that are targetted by malicious agents. The right tech can detect weaknesses and threats early, enabling the organization to act on time and prevent dreading losses.
So, how much should be invested? More every year. For many organizations, a cybersecurity budget is something new, especially for SMBs that are slowly digitizing their workflows. These early budgets may be shy in most cases, so the answer here is to take a broader look and be willing to increase the investment in order to be coherent to modern times.
