Companies are always subject to attacks, especially from the online world. Hackers are constantly working to access business networks for various reasons. Some are looking to steal information to sell, whereas others just simply want to cause trouble.
Regardless of what they are doing and why they are doing it, such attacks can be incredibly devastating to a company. Not only can it lead to massive financial losses, but it can hurt a company’s reputation that may have taken years to build.
The biggest and most common attacks that affect businesses worldwide are phishing attacks. To understand it better, here’s a bit more information on this type of cyberattack.
What is a phishing attack?
Simply put, a phishing attack generally shows up as an email sent to your business, whether it is to you or one of your staff members. It looks legitimate and genuine—but they are engineered to steal information!
For instance, it may ask for you to login into a website—asking for details that should usually be considered as highly confidential—but once you do, it immediately records what you have written. It can be other types of emails; however, some showing up as requests for money, others geared to install malware into the computer.
Note that these are just examples of a few types of phishing attacks, and there are more out there, mostly due to the creativity of attackers!
What are the consequences of a phishing attack?
While the financial cost of being subject to phishing attacks can vary from business to business, the amount of money generally stolen can be between $300,000 to over $10,000,000. In fact, the biggest attack ever recorded occurred in 2018, where billions were taken. Such breaches are called mega breaches and will generally cost $350,000,000 and up. On average, the amount stolen lies around three to four million, and up to eight million if your company is in the US.
Apart from financial costs, there are a few other consequences of phishing attacks.
The first consequence includes customers leaving the company because of the breach. These can easily be equated to financial loss, where the higher the percentage of customers lost, the higher the financial loss.
The second consequence is a decrease in new customers, and an overall loss in consumer confidence. When a breach occurs, many companies only realise this has happened many days after the actual occurrence. Previous clients and even your prospects start to become afraid to buy from you, leading them to look at your other competitors instead.
The third consequence is loss of business continuity. This is the money your business is not able to make due to the breach, especially if the attack hampers with business processes!
All in all, phishing attacks and other breaches are incredibly expensive when they occur. Companies lose plenty of money, whether it be from money getting stolen or the money invested to fix the problem. For that reason, if you have yet to implement contingency plans against such breaches, it is vital that you set one up as soon as possible.
If you face any trouble, always be sure to reach out to cybersecurity agencies for help. They are always up to date to the latest attack and can implement the best technologies to protect your business from various cyber attacks that can cripple your business.
FraudWatch International is an online cybersecurity agency offering protection to clients worldwide against phishing, malware, and more. If you are looking for anti-phishing assistance to protect your business, work with us today!