Penetration testing is an added cost, but it’s also an investment into preparedness, security, and peace of mind. Here’s how it can save money for any business in the long term.
1. It reduces the risk of a costly data breach
This is, arguably, the most obvious benefit to regular penetration testing. When you’re working within the closed ecosystem of your company’s IT systems day in and day out, it’s incredibly easy to overlook (or never even notice) the cracks in the fence, particularly if you aren’t an expert in cybersecurity. The very fact that these vulnerabilities are invisible is what makes them so insidious; hackers and cybercriminals know how to track them down, but you don’t. It’s like having a front door that they have the key to, rather than you. The right pentest reporting tools will expose those vulnerabilities and pull them into a clear, comprehensive report that proves actionable from the moment you receive it.
What does that mean for your bottom line? Well, the average cost of a data breach to UK SMEs is thought to be somewhere in the region of £3,400, back that number quickly rises to exceed £5,000 when those companies have 50 or more employees. Regulatory penalties and fines can also mount-up if you made a serious mistake in terms of your data protection. But that isn’t the only cost a business needs to consider.
Data breaches, even when they don’t cost millions to resolve, represent a major cost in terms of business reputation. Customers or clients are quick to jump ship – and, often, rightly so – if they feel that a business is skimping on security, and a data breach – including the ensuing legal entanglements – can easily derail an otherwise promising venture. What’s more, employees can lose confidence in the company, particularly if their own data was exposed during the breach.
There’s no exact timeline for bouncing back from a data breach. Some companies will make it eventually, others won’t recover, regardless of what the initial cost was to ‘put it right’.
2. Meet compliance requirements as they arise
Pentest reporting will highlight any areas in which you are falling short of compliance, and provide clear action for meeting the requirements. This is the best way to avoid costly fines down the road, which were unlikely to have been included in the quarterly budget.
3. Reactive spending will always be steep
Pentest reporting means getting your ducks in a row before anything happens, which means it represents an ongoing investment into risk management. The alternative is to sit and wait for a crisis to strike – and, as anyone with any experience in business knows, reactive spending is far more expensive.
When company data is actively at stake, you will have to throw at it whatever money the crisis requires in order to reach remediation. If you have a limited internal team, this means paying the steep cost of emergency contractor fees to neutralise the issue – which is also a major disruption to business continuity.
4. Keep stakeholders and clients onboard
Nobody has faith in a company that’s being held together with willpower and twigs. Future-facing companies will invest in their defenses regularly, and always be cognisant of the level of risk they are exposed to – and protected against.
