A detailed cybersecurity policy is an essential part of any business continuity plan. It ensures that you’re adequately addressing any weaknesses that your business has, are prepared for potential threats, and are ready to mitigate an attack.
While most business owners know that they need a cybersecurity policy, many don’t know the risks of a poor policy.
So can poor cybersecurity policy disrupt business continuity? A poor cybersecurity policy can disrupt business continuity by:
- Making a cyber-attack more likely as defensive measures aren’t in place
- Making attacks worse as policies necessary for recovery aren’t established
- Impacting revenue and productivity, all of which affect the bottom line
Read on to learn more about how a poor cybersecurity policy can disrupt your business continuity and what a good policy should include.
How Can Poor Cybersecurity Policy Disrupt Business Continuity?
Cybersecurity breaches can have a huge negative effect on a business, so it’s important to ensure that you have a solid cybersecurity policy in place that considers your business continuity.
Cost
A data breach can result in a variety of costs, such as fines, lawsuits, and extra staff wages. In 2024, the average cost of a data breach across businesses of all sizes was £3,270. This includes direct costs paid to IT consultants or the attackers, long term costs such as hiring new staff or improving security, and indirect costs where staff couldn’t complete their work or devices needing replacements.
Under GDPR regulations, an individual is also entitled to claim compensation from an organisation if they’ve experienced material (e.g. loss of money) or non-material (e.g. suffered distress) damage as a result of the organisation breaking data protection law. This may result in further financial losses and reputational damage.
Loss of Income
Knowing that a company has been a victim of a data breach can stop customers from trusting the brand and influence them to choose a competitor or avoid the affected company’s services. Consumers don’t want to risk their own personal data, so providing it to a company with a poor cybersecurity policy isn’t worth it. This can result in a loss of revenue for the organisation.
This can also create a snowball effect. Knowing that consumers don’t trust the business can influence other businesses’ decisions on whether to work with them. Because of this reputational damage, many businesses won’t want to be linked to that brand and may choose a competitor as a result.
Productivity Loss
Productivity loss as a result of a data breach can be one of the most common business continuity disruptions that organisations face. There are many forms this could take, such as a hairdresser losing access to their diary booking system, a construction company losing access to their sub contractor database, or a small manufacturer losing their production line and communication with customers.
In the short term, a cyber attack will take unplanned time to deal with. This can be from mitigating the attack or downtime through loss of access to networks and data. Overall, 24% of businesses say that a data breach prevented staff carrying out their day-to-day work, this could result in missed deadlines and overtime.
Long term, compromised financial or personal data takes time to correct, as well as time to conduct cybersecurity training and complete audits to update your policies.
What Should a Cybersecurity Policy Include?
While the requirements of a cybersecurity policy are ever-changing due to new techniques and tools being used by cyber criminals, there are some factors that should always be addressed. It should first include the scope of the policy and a list of all confidential data that needs to be protected.
The policy should identify potential threats to the organisation’s cybersecurity and what controls have been implemented to mitgate each one or reduce the risk to an acceptable level. This could include things like antivirus software and firewalls. Maintaining a list of which updates and patches will need to be applied will also ensure things like browsers and plugins aren’t at risk. This can also include operating systems, and other internet-facing applications. Furthermore policies should cover what data an organisation has, how it is processed and protected showing compliance with GDPR regulations.
There should be a comprehensive list of tasks and who is responsible for each, such as who is responsible for responding to and resolving attacks, which users have admin rights, and who should maintain and enforce the policy.
It’s also important to list what cybersecurity training is needed and what will be done on an ongoing basis. Employees are the first line of defence for cybersecurity, so neglecting their training can be detrimental. Visit our Cybersecurity Training page for more information on what this training includes.
It is impossible to mitigate all risks to zero , a pragmatic cybersecurity policy should include a strong plan for what to do in the case of an attack. Having a poor policy that doesn’t adequately cover such scenarios can make the fallout from the attack worse. Not only is a company less likely to deal with the breach in a timely manner that might stop the worst from happening, but it won’t be prepared to address the remaining issues after the attack has stopped.
Once the breach has been remedied, there should also be plans in place to review and update the current policy. This should review how the current policy performed, what weaknesses need to be addressed, what can be improved, and what training needs to be implemented.
Reduce Your Risk of a Cyber Attack With Our Expert Team at the North East Business Resilience Centre
If you’re worried about the current condition of your cybersecurity, then it’s important that you receive expert help and advice. The NEBRC is a police-led, not-for-profit organisation that was created to inform SMEs on how to stay safe from cyber crime and online fraud.
We work with you in a controlled environment to explore any flaws and weaknesses in your systems, and provide cost-effective solutions to help secure your business from any type of attack. With continued guidance and support from our specialist team, we’ll support you throughout your journey to keep your business safe.
Find out more about our Business Vulnerability Assessment, or contact us today for tailed solutions to your cybersecurity needs and concerns. You can also sign up to our free core membership to keep up to date with the latest cyber security matters and keep your business safe online.