What are the costs of developing cybersecurity programs for businesses? What’s the cost of not developing cybersecurity program? With 43% of cyberattacks aimed at small businesses in 2015, businesses of all sizes need to defend against cyber threats. The average cyberattack cost a small business $8,699 dollars in 2013, that number has gone up to $20,752 per attack. These losses can be catastrophic to small businesses. Without preparation, companies can be bankrupted by an unexpected cyber-attack. The damages of cyber-attacks extend beyond financial. Websites can be defaced, customer satisfaction can be decreased. Younger customers in the IBM survey were more likely to stop doing business with companies that were attacked when the attack results in PII loss. Cyberattacks can have many consequences for businesses including legal consequences especially if companies fail to protect or disclose loss of legally protected pii such as HIPPA violations. Companies must have a cybersecurity plan to comply with any regulations or standards such as PCI. Cyberattacks are like environmental disasters they need to be prepared for.

You’re computer is never safe. The Best way to protect your computer is strong antivirus and antimalware. While more viruses are developed to attack windows machines, viruses are developed to attack other operating systems, so all computers should run antivirus. No computer is completely safe. Even airgapped computers can be vulnerable to attacks that breach physical security, such as infected flashdrives picked up at a conference or coffee shop that download malware to the seemingly protected computer. Antivirus is essential and should be configured to autorun. Computers should be patched as soon as an update is release and antivirus signatures should be kept up to date. There are constantly new releases of malware, new zero-day viruses. Most malware has to be triggered by a user. Never open suspicious email attachments or links. Trojans can be installed by a user downloading software especially freeware from peer to peer sources such as mods, free games, cracked games, illicit music. Worms can travel through the network from pc to pc. A clean install of the OS is the only way to be sure a computer is clean. Viruses can even infect system restore functionality. Practice good computer hygiene and only download what you need. Every piece of software is a potential vulnerability and a potential source of infection.