Data breaches are a major security threat to all organisations
If you’re not an expert in IT security, it’s tempting to think of it like an insurance policy. Something that you’ll hopefully never need but you grudgingly pay for. It’s sensible to have it just in case something happens.
Unfortunately, the reality is much more frightening. If your systems are connected to the internet, it’s not a question of “if” you’re going to get attacked or even “when”. The truth is, you’re already under constant attack from fraudsters, hackers, and bots, 24/7. IT security tools aren’t an insurance policy, they’re your first—and last—line of defence.
Still, businesses tend to see IT security as a cost centre rather than a source of value. That’s because it’s easy to count the cost of the software licences and security services you pay for every year; it’s much more difficult to calculate the money you’ve saved from all the data breaches and ransomware attacks that didn’t happen—because your security measures prevented them.
If we look industry-wide, the numbers speak for themselves. A recent study shows that the average total cost of a data breach is now around £3.6 million. For ransomware attacks specifically, the cost is even higher at £3.8 million—and that figure doesn’t even include the cost of the ransom itself!
Invest in data breach prevention to mitigate risk
Protecting your business from these potentially devastating losses isn’t just a sensible precaution—it’s an existential imperative. Northdoor can help you:
- Design a zero-trust security architecture that applies layered security to every user, device, application, database and access point in your infrastructure.
- Deploy artificial intelligence and automation technologies to identify new threat patterns and stay one step ahead of increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals.
- Build robust defences against ransomware attacks—from threat analysis and detection through to the creation of an immutable cyber vault for rapid recovery.
Don’t wait for a major security breach: email us, complete the form here or call us on 020 7448 8500 to arrange your free cyber resilience assessment.
How can we make the right security investments?
The cost figures referenced above come from the “Cost of a Data Breach 2022” report, commissioned by IBM and independently conducted by Ponemon Institute. The study surveyed 550 organisations impacted by data breaches between March 2021 and March 2022, and the findings make shocking reading—especially for CFOs. It’s not only the total cost of each data breach, but the facts that:
- 83% of organisations suffered more than one breach
- 60% of organisations had to raise prices for their customers to cover the cost of these losses
So, how can we minimise the risk of data breaches, and limit the damage when they do occur? Interestingly, the study found that the average cost per breach was much lower for two groups of organisations:
- £0.8 million less for organisations that have built a “zero trust” security architecture
- £2.5 million less for organisations that have fully deployed security AI and automation
Zero trust as a data breach prevention strategy
Zero trust is a security principle that we fully advocate at Northdoor. The idea is that traditional approaches to cyber security, which focused on securing the perimeter of your IT network, are no longer effective in a world where both employees and customers need to access your systems from anywhere, on any device. Instead, we can help you build an architecture where each user, application, database and device in your network is protected by layered security, and all access is controlled by the principle of least privilege.
Our holistic security practice can also help you adopt AI to proactively identify security threats, automate processes to counter those threats and protect your network instantly. To learn more about how Northdoor can improve your cyber resilience and minimise the risk and cost of security breaches, email us, complete the form here, or call us on 020 7448 8500 to arrange a free initial assessment.