Everyone understands why they lock their front door when leaving their home … to keep bad people out, and keep their belongings safe. People own TV’s, and jewellery, and the loss of these can cause both financial and emotional distress. Even worse, people might raid the rubbish and steal unshredded bank statements or official documentation, which they use to steal your identity and take credit cards in your name, running up massive debts.
These issues can all be resolved (apart from the emotional distress) but it takes large quantities of time, effort and money to do it. Prevention is significantly easier than dealing with the aftermath. We all know this, which is why people invest in reputable locks, burglar alarms, CCTV, etc.
Companies face the same risks as we do at home … they have valuable assets that others want to steal. From equipment, tools, intellectual property, sensitive data, technical specifications, etc., there are always people with an eye on what companies have and want it for themselves.
Nobody ever lost their job after having a TV stolen in a burglary, but a company can lose customers and profit if someone steals their tools, and they’re unable to operate. That makes protecting those assets a key business activity.
Being the victim of a data breach (losing personal data, or sensitive information) can cripple a company.
- 43% of data breaches involved small businesses in 2019
- 34% of those data breaches involved ‘internal actors’
- 93% of companies failed after prolonged data loss
Clearly, failing to properly protect assets and data can kill a business.