How to Calculate the Cost of Cyber Threats
Cybersecurity threats continue to increase along with the technological advancements we make. If not managed properly, the cost of cyber threats will hurt a company’s performance, brand, and financials. This makes calculating cyber threats critical in protecting and securing your network, data, and company.
The Cost of Cyber Threats
Cyber attacks impact businesses in many different ways. Productivity can be disrupted or even put to a stop, leading to a loss in sales and profits.
Data theft compromises a company’s strategic advantage and also puts customers at risk. Hardware or software can also be rendered useless because of cyber attacks, as well as tarnish a brand’s value.
By knowing ALL the cost of cyber threats, CISOs can provide decision-makers, business owners, and even employees a better understanding of how serious cyber attacks can be. And the best way to do this is to quantify the risk.
Using Numbers to Defend Against Cyber Attacks
These cyber-threats cost a lot of money if companies don’t protect themselves against them. According to data by the World Economic Forum, the annual cost to businesses has been increasing yearly for each kind of cyber attack.
It shows the average loss a company experiences with one attack:
- Malware which leads to information loss of $1.2 million
- Denial of Service which leads to business disruption costs of $1.1 million
And these are just for one attack at one company. Imagine if it were multiple attacks or an attack on a global company, the cost would multiply exponentially.
But how do you calculate the cost of cyber threats and present an appropriate plan? CISOs and IT managers can use Boardish to quantify these threats and help get your proposed solution approved.
Using Boardish to Calculate and Get Funding Approved
For CISOs and IT managers, using Boardish will quantify the impact of cybersecurity threats and demonstrate how much your mitigating action can save the company. This makes the decision-making process simpler for everyone involved.
The Boardish methodology simplifies the process and provides the quantitative output needed to justify budget expenses. As an example, you’ll be able to quantify items like:
Cost of one or multiple cybersecurity risks to the company = e.g. $5 million
The output calculates for the losses in regulations, sales, salary, and even market loss.
Proposed solution budget (including implementation costs) = e.g. $50,000
Compare this to the example company turnover of $20 million
And the decision is very easy.
Accept the risk of 25% of your annual turnover, or pay 1% to mitigate the risk.
This information is easier to digest and makes deciding a much quicker process for decision-makers. For this example, the solution can save 25% of total sales at the cost of $50,000. With the total amount saved versus the cost to mitigate, it justifies the cost needed to be spent on it.
Part of keeping data safe and secure is to be able to manage risk and understand its impact on the business.
With Boardish, you have a tool that helps you translate IT and Cyber solutions into understandable data for the board and decision-makers to speed up approvals!
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Eli Migdal
