Consequences of not having cybersecurity in your company

Cybersecurity has become one of the most important aspects to ensure the future of a company. 70% of cyberattacks target PYMEs, and it is estimated that approximately 60% of these businesses close within six months after suffering an attack.

Spain is one of the most cyberattacked countries, with nearly 40,000 daily threats. Notable attacks include DDoS (distributed denial of service), DoS (denial of service), ransomware attacks, and phishing.

Most common cyberattacks against companies

Before looking at the consequences of not having cybersecurity implemented in your company, let’s first understand the main threats that businesses of all sectors and sizes face.

• Phishing attacks. This is one of the most commonly used methods by cybercriminals to gain access to a company's IT system or infrastructure. Through an email or SMS, attackers impersonate a legitimate person or organization to obtain passwords or access credentials. Once inside the system, they deploy the malware they have prepared to attack it.

• DDoS attacks. As mentioned earlier, this is one of the most detected cyberattacks today. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are a type of attack aimed at disabling a server, service, or infrastructure.
  
  
• Ransomware attacks. This type of cyberattack is one of the most dangerous and damaging for businesses that fall victim to it. Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to your information and threatens to make your files inaccessible if you don't pay the requested ransom.

Consequences of not protecting your company against cyberattacks

Although it is increasingly being mandated by law for all companies to adopt cybersecurity measures, many still do not adequately protect their systems to prevent cyberattacks. Below, we will look at the main consequences of not having cybersecurity measures in place:

Economic problems

One of the most immediate consequences of a cyberattack is financial loss. These losses can stem from the attack itself or from subsequent fines for possible regulatory non-compliance.

One of the cyberattacks that causes the most financial losses is ransomware. According to the "State of Ransomware 2024" report by Sophos, the recovery costs for organizations after a ransomware attack amounted to 2.73 million USD (not including the ransom payment).

Loss of sensitive information

Another immediate consequence of a cyberattack is the loss of information. Most cyberattacks aim to steal information, either to sell it on the Dark Web or to store it for launching more cyberattacks in the future.

The leakage of sensitive data from clients or employees can lead to legal consequences, which we will explain below.

Legal problems

Over the years, and with the exponential increase in cyberattacks against companies and public organizations, the relevant authorities have passed laws that require certain types of companies to implement cybersecurity measures. For example, the European regulation on cybersecurity, NIS2, has been updated. One of the main changes in this new directive is that it expands its scope, providing greater protection to sectors and services of higher social and economic importance.

A public organization that has faced a legal issue due to a cyberattack is the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. It has recently been reported that the Autoritat Catalana de Protecció de Dades (APDCAT) has issued a sanction against the hospital for failing to comply with the necessary security measures for prevention, detection, and containment.

Solution: Implement cybersecurity solutions in your company.

At ESED, as cybersecurity specialists, we can help you protect your most valuable asset—your data. Despite being technology partners, at ESED we act as if we were your own internal cybersecurity department, providing the necessary and specific cybersecurity services and solutions to address security gaps and system vulnerabilities. Additionally, we offer our own cybersecurity tools to meet the needs identified in various systems and infrastructures.

ESED's cybersecurity tools

• Petam. Petam is an automatic online scanner that detects security gaps and vulnerabilities in websites. Once the scan is completed, the tool provides a report that explains how to resolve the detected issues without the need for specific technical knowledge.
  
  
• ESED Attack. ESED Attack is our ethical hacking solution. We recreate controlled attack scenarios to assess the effectiveness of an IT infrastructure's defenses. These simulations allow us to identify vulnerabilities, test incident response, and strengthen the capabilities for threat detection and mitigation.
  
  
• WWatcher. Our latest development, WWatcher, is a cybersecurity tool specifically designed to prevent information theft and the mass download of internal files, protecting a company's internal and private information from unauthorized third parties.