Cybercrime has made its way to the top of business concerns. While technological advancement has helped organizations ensure safety and privacy, the threats of cyber criminals cannot be ignored. As per The Global Risks report, 90% of companies worldwide recognize they are insufficiently prepared to protect themselves against cyber-attacks. So, no matter how small or large a company is, an organization surely needs a cyber security plan to prevent data and financial threats.

A security program assists in identifying and assures compliance with the regulations to ensure proper data management. It lays down the framework for protecting your company by assessing the external/internal risks.

In short, cyber security program helps in identifying:

• Physical loss of data
• Unauthorized access
• Interception of data in transit
• Data corruption

It takes care of:

• Product information, including plans, designs, source code, patent applications, and drawings
• Financial information, including financial records and market assessments
• Customer information, including personaldata, facts, and figures

The inability to be able to protect the aforementioned can result in business losses, legal obligation, and hampers the goodwill of the company. Below are 5 reasons why cyber security programs are a must.

Cybercrime is increasing at an unimaginable pace

With everyone shifting towards the digital platform, hacker and cyber criminals have excelled the art of entering into an organization’s system and copying all their data and information for unethical use.

A cyber security program helps in preparing an organization for client audits and compliance investigations

Since cyber security regulations have become the main focal point, it has become necessary for organizations to employ actionable cyber security programs to ensure all the private and confidential data is safe. Cyber security programs are designed to focus on protecting computers, networks, programs, and data from unplanned or unauthorized change, access, or destruction.

It has become pivotal to protect sensitive information not only internally but from clients as well

Cyber breaches are growing and thus it is important to explain the employees on different cyber risks that they should be careful of. A trusted cyber security program comprises actions for setting secure passwords, the risk of phishing, what types of suspicious activity to look for in any outbound and inbound traffic, etc. Not only is it essential to have a cyber security plan in place to guard the organization’s core information, but it is equally important for safeguarding client details.

There have been several cyber attacks that have happened through vendors. Also, since client audits are rising, it has become necessary to deploy cyber security program to secure policies and to protect vital information.

Cybercrime can destruct an organization’s good will and reputation

A cyber-breach not only results in the data loss but also harms the reputation a company takes years to build. Thus, a tested cyber security program is a must as it allows the external organizations to be able to trust the companies they intend to work with. Also, a sound cyber security program acts as a benefit and takes way the vulnerabilities of external threats and attacks.

Having a cyber security program means that the necessary steps have been taken to mitigate the risk of losing data in any one of a variety of ways. It also includes proper life cycle management of the company’s IT information. A good security program puts forth a bigger picture of how organizations can keep their data secure. It takes an all-inclusive approach that defines how every part of the company is involved in data protection.