Why Cybersecurity?

There are some topics that some people only take seriously when they fall on their toes. Data security – and the individual areas of IT security, data protection and physical security – are among them.

I sometimes wonder myself how many companies still don’t have a clear IT structure and corresponding secure solutions and processes in place. They muddle through in the hope that hacker attacks will only affect the others.

And I’m not just talking about startups, but also many established medium-sized companies and even large corporations!

The numbers are alarming and should have reached every executive floor by now. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, Cybercrime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

Really sad – also apart from all the money:

Companies often even already have the right experts on staff. It’s just that it’s traditionally difficult to make budget decision-makers without a technical background – or at least a little interest – understand that this “IT” is not only complex in itself, but is also divided once again into numerous smaller areas and tasks. Even if the company does not yet offer digital products these days.

Here are a few points to prepare for the next budget negotiation:

Failure Prevention

For a long time, production downtime was the biggest horror of decision makers. For the past 2 years, cyber threats have topped the list. Practice shows, however, that it will still take a while before this view is accepted everywhere. The Allianz Risk Barometer is one of the sources that can be used in such discussions to support the argument. Perhaps IT security will then finally move up a budget category.

Data Protection

Difficult argument – at least in several EU countries. And I also get messages from shady consultants every day, always following the same pattern: trying to scare people, trying to sell them.

In Germany in particular, “data protection” can now be used to kill everything. In addition, the EU General Data Protection Regulation is not the best basis for actual data security in companies. At many points, you have to choose between IT security and employee data protection. Nevertheless, addressing the issue and implementing technical and organizational measures (TOMs) makes IT security a priority.

Reputation

This is another argument that decision-makers often think about too late. For me personally, the biggest horror would be if our future Cyttraction learning platform were to be hacked and the data of our mostly highly-regulated customers or their employees and business partners were to become public. I base my product and investment decisions on this worst case scenario.

Of course, this is only possible if you look at the experiences or “war stories” of other companies and find out what would be the worst case scenario for your own business model. Then it is a matter of working against this.

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Innovative Digital Products

Problems with IT security usually also mean infrastructure chaos. And that suggests that the company already lacks a valid internal database and functioning digital processes. This makes it doubly difficult to offer digital products on this basis.

Healthy Basis for Long-term Success

Once there is order, structure and a sound understanding of data security, this is a good basis for continuous growth – in other words, for scalability with digital production. Without your own IT infrastructure blowing up in your face every few days!

Employer Attractiveness

Modern technical equipment and advanced work processes have been on the wish list of many sought-after professionals for years – and not just among the younger generations. A company that is digitally and securely positioned and therefore not afraid of remote work or digital nomads has a clear advantage in recruiting.

Sometimes the right business partners can also help you out of a tricky situation. We have tested our CyXperts for their understanding of IT security and data protection. In addition, 1A customer service is a prerequisite for inclusion in the partner network.