Investments In Cyber Security: How To Protect Your Data?

Is customer trust important to your business or your wealth management? If so, it’s time to talk about investing in cyber security. We use the word “investing” deliberately in this article because cybersecurity is an investment that global businesses take very seriously.

Cybersecurity is not the type of financial investment that fits neatly into a portfolio, where you spend one dollar a day and expect to earn $1.10 in 18 months. This is an investment that maintains the trust of your customers and partners. In today’s transparent market and global competition, a business cannot survive in business without earning trust again and again every day.

Unlike a typical capital investment, cybersecurity does not have a specific percentage return. This, of course, does not mean that its impact is impossible to measure. Useful framework on the intrinsic value of investing in cybersecurity; It is a tripartite group consisting of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Considerations Before Cyber Security Investments

Availability is the easiest support there is to map the direct return on investment. Consider one of the simplest forms of cyber attack or hacking methods: Let’s assume that you take 1,000 lira annual precautions in response to a DDoS attack on an e-commerce server.

If the DDoS attack is successful and disables the server for 24 hours, you will lose much more than the 3 Dollars you would spend if you divide 1,000 Dollars by 365 days. You take action because the life of your business is on the line. When your customers cannot place orders, they can simply take their business elsewhere. Maintaining availability is an important investment in the business.

Confidentiality and integrity are also very important. Protecting customers, inventory, and shared data isn’t just about completing transactions smoothly and efficiently. Your customers value your brand based on your ability to protect that data from unauthorized access and unwanted changes. This makes confidentiality and integrity indispensable components of business value.

The Impact Of Cybersecurity On Enterprise Value And Return On Investment

Traditional ROI models ignore the business value that cybersecurity measures bring, and as a result, many business stakeholders misunderstand the importance of that investment. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to get them to understand is for the business to become the victim of an attack. There is nothing more painful than working with a company trying to recover web visibility during a DDoS attack. 

Customers go to competitors to make purchases, competitors work for their benefit to take market share, and the press publishes scary stories that will drive potential new customers away. In long-term results, this is chaos. Because regaining a lost customer is more difficult than gaining a new customer.

On the other side of the coin, there is nothing better than working with a company that has DDoS mitigation services. When an attack starts, they can survive the attack thanks to the cyber security measures taken. The crisis is overcome, customer trust is retained and business continuity is guaranteed.

Cybersecurity should not be an ad hoc or arbitrary item in the company calculation—money spent when necessary to eliminate a specific threat or nuisance. Cyber ​​security; is one of the greatest assistants of public relations, marketing, or advertising in the 21st century, which are traditional investments that protect, create, and increase a company’s reputation, credibility, and wealth. In addition to all these, today cyber security is an important contributor to the health, strength, and reliability of every brand.

What Are Cyber Security Investments For Businesses?

There is a very common view that shows that businesses’ approach to cyber security investments is not the same as their approach to other investments. Cybersecurity investments are seen as investments that do not directly bring profit to the business.

The benefit of a cyber security investment will only be to the extent that the financial loss that will be incurred in the event of a cyber attack can be reduced, depending on the reduction of cyber security risks that pose a threat to the business. Therefore, the criterion in evaluating the investment, unlike other investments, will be the marginal benefit of reducing the expected financial loss to the business when the cost of the system solution to be implemented is deducted.

The strategies businesses use for cybersecurity investment decisions are generally of two types: Determining a fixed budget amount required for investment. Determining the targeted security level to meet cyber security requirements and priorities.

Businesses begin the cybersecurity investment decision process by determining a fixed budget or security level to meet the security priorities of the business, in other words, by determining the investment strategy.

In the reports produced as a result of interviews with businesses, it is seen that the fixed budget is mostly determined based on a certain percentage of the company’s Information Technologies budget (usually between 1% and 15%). 

The aim is to decide on security investments that will acquire technologies that can minimize business risks within the determined fixed budget. In the other investment strategy that focuses on the security needs of the business, security risks, priorities, and the amount of investment required to reach the targeted security level are determined.

Internal and external factors affecting the determination of the investment strategy may be the business process requirements of the business, attacks experienced in the previous period, legislation to be followed, and customer or supplier demands or conditions.

Should There Be A Holistic Technology Strategy For Cyber Security?

According to the research results; Between 2010 and 2022, $1.3 trillion was invested in cybersecurity, and this investment increased by 16.6% annually. Cybersecurity tools and applications have evolved in complexity, speed, and effectiveness. 

But ironically, the biggest threat to effective cybersecurity is the scale and complexity of security measures. Because the more clutter there is in your technology environment, the more difficult it is to receive signals and find solutions to problems quickly. 

The most effective method to reduce complexity is hardware automation. In this regard, combining technology in companies on a single platform facilitates integration and helps relevant teams detect cyber incidents more efficiently.

What Are The Markets Where Cybersecurity Investments Are Emerging?

Three out of four survey respondents say they see cloud and IoT (internet of things) as the biggest technology topics in the next five years. According to the research; With the adoption of cloud technology, cyber attack areas have also increased exponentially. The pace of change continues to increase and companies are trying to keep up with it. 

These rapid changes have the potential to expose companies to data loss, breaches, and outages when migrating to cloud and IoT systems without adequate analysis and planning around cloud interfaces and environments.

To prevent these risks and overcome challenges, companies need to take advantage of automation technology. Half of CISOs at companies with the most effective cybersecurity say their organizations use cloud orchestration and automation in their cybersecurity approach.

Another risk factor that stands out in the research is; supply chains. All organizations are now inextricably and digitally connected to businesses in their supply chains. Over the last five years, threat actors appear to be targeting supply chains that they see as the weakest link.

For this reason, CISOs need to keep their organization’s supply chains under control, not just once but regularly. In addition, it is critical to collaborate with directors of operations (COOs) and other operational leaders to detect all areas of cyber attack in the supply chain.

See you in the next post,

Anil UZUN