Protecting your business finances is not something you should ever take lightly. Traditionally, the only things you had to do to protect business finances included proper budgeting and financial record keeping, mitigating losses, and choosing a reputable financial partner like a bank or payment provider. However, with the introduction of technology and the internet, businesses have become prone to more issues that they have to protect their finances from. Cyberattacks are now at the top of the list of dangers that businesses have to protect their finances from. Therefore, this article will focus on this category of attacks and how to protect your business finances from them.
Cybercrimes that affect business finances
Nowadays, when it comes to business finances, there are many things you have to worry about. While technology has transformed how businesses handle their finances, it has also introduced new categories of issues that may affect business finances. They can be looked at as cybercrimes. Companies have lost billions to cybercrimes over the years. Let us look at examples of how cybercrimes can affect business finances:
- Ransome situations
One of the ways business finances can be affected through cybercrimes is when companies have to pay ransom to protect their information. There have been cases where cybercriminals have taken control of critical IT systems or gained access to sensitive information about a business or its stakeholders (clients/owners/managers/employees/clients). In such cases, the criminals may demand huge ransom payments in order to give back the control of the business systems or not share the information with outsiders. Having to pay such ransoms may have a significant effect on business finances.
- Operational disruptions
Another way is through operational disruptions. When businesses come under cyberattack, this may significantly affect their business operations. In some cases, cyberattacks may cause operations to come to a halt. Such disruptions affect the business’ profits, which generally disrupts the financial flow of a business.
- Damaged reputation
When businesses suffer cyberattacks, most of the time, their reputations also get affected. Clients and other companies may not be keen on being associated with such a company. Therefore, a business may lose millions when they lose their clients due to cyberattacks. Furthermore, businesses may be forced to spend millions trying to rectify the situation and build a positive image after a cyberattack scandal. These instances may affect business finances.
- Cyberattack-related lawsuits
There have also been instances where businesses have lost millions to lawsuits as a result of cyberattacks. When stakeholders trust a business with their personal information, if the business is attacked and this information is leaked or used to attack the stakeholders’ then they have the bases to file lawsuits.
- Loss of revenue
Cyberattacks may also cause loss of business revenue. For instance, when businesses are victims of cybercrimes, they may lose their clients and money to ransom payments and business disruptions. All these events may result in revenue losses which will impact how a business operates.
How to protect business finances from cybercrimes
These are just a few of the ways cyberattacks can affect the finances of a business. However, they demonstrate how important it is for a company to protect its business finances from cyberattacks. Let us look at some ways businesses can protect themselves:
- Not storing costumer’s data (especially financial and personal information) that could be targeted by cybercriminals
- Screening individuals that are given access to important company data
- Using advanced protection tools like biometric log in technology for business employees
- Using anti viruses and other technologies for protecting company data from prying eyes
Norton: A way for protecting business finances from cybercrimes
Norton is an award-winning antivirus for protecting devices and personal and personal information stored in the devices. This antivirus offers protection for different devices like computers, smartphones, and tablets. Using this antivirus for business devices can help protect the devices from cyberattacks and keep the information stored in it secure. Norton offers several tools for protecting devices and information. They include:
- A password manager for generating, storing, and managing passwords and personal information online
- Firewall for PC and Mac that helps monitor the communications between devices used in a business and blocks out any unauthorized traffic
- Cloud backup for important business financial information to prevent losses that could cost a business
With Norton 360 Antivirus protection, you will have everything covered!
Conclusion
Using a trusted antivirus will allow you to still enjoy the benefits of technology when running your business while mitigating the risks of cyberattacks that could affect business finances. Therefore, it is one of the best ways to protect your business finances.
