Poor IT security in your business can lead to serious consequences for you, your customers, suppliers, and partners. With more and more companies relying on technology to conduct business, IT security becomes a critical Achilles' heel – even for small businesses. It can cost you dearly.

Damaged reputation and trust

If your company experiences a breach of IT security, it can have more consequences than those directly related to financial loss. A breach of IT security can also lead to a damaged reputation and, at worst, undermine the trust that the business has built over many years of marketing and reputation-building. 

In cases where sensitive information has been compromised, the biggest consequence may be that partners withdraw and customers terminate their relationships. For smaller businesses, this could mean the end of the road, as the costs required to restore the reputation become too high.

It is extensive and extremely resource-intensive, for both large and small businesses, to initiate this type of damage control to restore a tarnished reputation. This applies to existing customers, but it can also make it difficult to land new ones.

If the breach of IT security is also reported in the media, the effort to regain trust will be extensive and enormously resource-intensive for both large and small businesses.

Stolen digital access and lost income

Yes, there are digital thieves. In reality, there is no real difference between having your phone stolen at a café or losing access to passwords. 

Digital thieves continually find new ways to steal passwords, gain access to files, and download sensitive data. The information they steal can, for example, be sold to your competitors. In many cases, the thieves “kidnap” your data and lock it behind a code. The only option the company has is to pay the attacker to regain the information and/or prevent it from being leaked or sold. This attack is called ransomware.

Today, most companies rely on – in one form or another – digital solutions in their daily operations, such as cloud storage of files and email. (Cloud storage is actually as vulnerable to attacks as traditional storage, but many forget to back these up.) If access is restricted or stopped, one may find they cannot perform their work, which can again lead to lost earnings for the company. This can involve costs related to employees who cannot produce or the business failing to deliver goods or services as agreed.

Companies may find themselves victims of theft of sensitive information from outsiders or former employees. Therefore, always remember to change passwords and revoke access from employees when the employment relationship ends! Good offboarding procedures for former employees or partners are therefore important for all businesses.

IT security breaches cost an average of 85,000 kroner

Data attacks can strike anyone, and they can come in various forms. Some companies are not even aware that they have a serious breach of IT security until long after it has occurred. Returning to normal operations can cost businesses dearly and damage both the economy and credibility of the company.

The Dark Figure Survey from 2020 shows that 14% of the businesses in the survey have experienced breaches of IT security that have resulted in financial loss or a weakened market position. Among these, the average cost for the most severe breaches of IT security in 2019 was nearly 85,000 kroner. Those hardest hit that year estimated costs of 5 million kroner.

Remember good IT security procedures

Good IT security is more than just activating two-step verification or changing your password every 12 to 15 months. The Dark Figure Survey from 2020 shows that about half of all security breaches are due to human error, and we therefore recommend that businesses develop a clear IT policy with guidelines and internal and external procedures. The IT policy should be signed by the company’s employees, suppliers, and partners. A good rule of thumb is to anchor the routines and guidelines internally. It may also be wise to assign this responsibility to one or more persons in the company, so the routines are followed up?