A decade ago, the world saw the beginning of a transformation, where brands could no longer rely on their ability to shine in physical space. Brick-and-mortar stores and locations are not enough. They have to develop their identities through data and trust. At the same time, every brand needs to be concerned about cyber attacks while moving into that digital space.
Now, when the world is getting more digitized, brands need to yield cybersecurity as much of a priority and not add it merely as one other line item in their budgets or complete another task on any to-do list. Thinking about cyber attacks and finding a way to guard against them is going to become a vital part of brand resilience in the future.
Entry points
With the digital age that we are living in and with digitization itself, these days any potential bad actor has several different gateways through which to carry out a cyber attack on a business. Any touchpoint with a business can become the front door to an ill-intentioned person. From social media campaigns to cloud servers and e-commerce transactions.
The Capital One breach, resulting from a misconfigured cloud server drove home the fact that even secure-looking spaces can have hidden vulnerabilities.
Cost of breaches
Cyberattacks are more than just digital annoyances for the companies going through them. They’re reputation-shattering crisis situations. Data breaches produce devastating fines, lawsuits, and erosion of customer trust which in turn lead to declining stock prices along with a damaged business.
Consumer levels of trust in Marriott decreased significantly following a data breach that exposed guest reservation information.
Potential threats
Cybercriminals don’t repeat their actions, which makes them unpredictable. They keep on changing their strategies and tactics. From there, they use sophisticated malware, zero-day vulnerabilities, and intricate social engineering schemes.
Robust security protocols need to be updated and employee training should take into account the latest phishing techniques, while incident response plans have to undergo regular testing as well as occasional refining.
The SolarWinds attack, targeting previously unknown vulnerabilities highlights the need for strong anticipatory and resilient protective measures.
Trust is fragile
It takes years for brands to build customer trust, and develop stories of reliability and security. Trust can be unraveled in an instant by a single cyberattack. Breached customer information, embezzled intellectual property, or interrupted operations can irreversibly ruin a brand’s name recognition and turn once loyal customers into bitter former clients.
Cybersecurity is now a branding issue rather than a technical one in an age of online reviews and viral narratives.
Differentiation
Brands that give high importance to cybersecurity can easily stand out in the crowded online marketplace today. Showing a dedication to data protection, using clear communication about breaches, preventative steps taken, and implementing strong privacy controls can appeal to increasingly conscious consumers of their own personal information.
By focusing on cybersecurity, brands can establish a competitive advantage by proving themselves to be trustworthy guardians of information as opposed to those competitors who might appear weak or apathetic towards data protection.
Research has found that over 70% of Americans are worried about the ways that companies are collecting and using personal data and that over 60% of consumers would stop doing business with a company after a data breach, which shows how important data privacy is for US consumers.