Imagine for a minute that you\u2019re the CEO of a scrappy, promising new start-up. In the beginning, it was just you and two other employees working on dinky PCs out of a 12-by-12-foot office, but things are picking up. \u00a0 The company is growing rapidly and heading into uncharted waters. You’re so busy with building your business, you haven’t had time to think about cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
As your company moves into the public eye \u2014 and, in turn, the hungry eyes of potential hackers \u2014 you realize you need to lock down your data. At this critical stage, a cyber-attack could mean the death of everything you and your team have built. \u00a0 But the budget is looking lean. Everything you\u2019ve done so far has been by the skin of your teeth, so why should security be any different? \u00a0 You put one of your more tech-savvy employees on the case, tasking him with finding the cheapest cyber security solutions available. Sure, he may not be an expert, but he understands computers. What could go wrong? \u00a0 He scours the web and peruses dozens of articles on the \u201cCheap and Effective Firewall Software.” He finds one that costs next to nothing and installs it in 10 hours with the help of a scrappy how-to guide. \u00a0 He reports back to you: crisis averted. You breathe a sigh of relief and turn your attention to other matters. You promise yourself you’ll install a better software later, when there’s more money in the bank. \u00a0 Fast-forward to the following year. Business is booming. The phone is ringing off the hook, new clients are flooding in and your profit margin is exploding. You even snag a feature in Entrepreneur Magazine. \u00a0 You’ve finally gotten over the start-up hump\u00a0\u2014 or so you think.<\/p>\n
You wake up one morning, and find out all of your company’s assets have been hacked. An advanced strain of ransomware sidestepped your free antivirus software. \u00a0 You’re locked out of everything; from client data to basic Word documents. All of the company’s digital assets lie behind an encrypted paywall. It demands $50,000 in Bitcoin to get everything back. You don’t have the money. \u00a0 Suddenly all of the success you’ve earned seems laughable. Your company is gone forever, because you didn’t have the foresight to invest in a robust cyber security solution.<\/p>\n
This may sound like rare occurence, but business owners all over the world are hacked each and every day. \u00a0 An 2016 IBM security study revealed just how common cyber attacks are. Half the businesses surveyed claim they’ve paid over $10,000 in ransomware payoffs during their company’s lifespan. A shocking 20% have paid over $40,000. \u00a0 Unfortunatley, it doesn’t stop there. Forbes estimates that cyber crime costs will reach $2 trillion by 2019. \u00a0 Don’t take shortcuts on cyber security when your time, money and business are on the line. It simply doesn\u2019t pay to be cheap when choosing a cyber security solution. \u00a0 Let’s break down the numbers. \u00a0 Say you\u2019re \u201csaving\u201d $1000 a month with free anti-virus software. Lo and behold, a virus punches its way into your company’s assets and causes chaos. \u00a0 Now you must spend thousands of dollars to 1. figure out the problem and 2. fix it. Even if you manage to expell the virus from your system, you might not recover all your assets.<\/p>\n
Don’t risk throwing those thousands of dollars down the drain on an uncertain outcome. Invest in a trustworthy cyber security solution. \u00a0 Beware of free antivirus software, “giveaway” cyber-protection, or “$5 firewall.” Hackers will cut through these like a hot knife through warm butter.\u00a0They seek out prehistoric, cheapo barriers guarding priceless company data and target it with attacks. \u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t buy a rusty, secondhand old lock for your house, so why are you installing primitive cyber security software to protect your most precious company resources? \u00a0 In a world where cybercrime is rampant, a hacker is bound come knocking at your digital door sooner or later. When that day comes, do you want a free piece of software that you saw on LifeHacker? Or a tried, true and tested solution? \u00a0 Don\u2019t be shortsighted when it comes to your data. Invest in your company\u2019s future, and protect yourself with the most powerful tools on the market. \u00a0 Get ahead of hackers before they destroy everything you own. Schedule a FREE Cyber Security Audit today by clicking below. \u00a0 Want more information on SugarShot’s cybersecurity services<\/a> or other IT managed services? Contact us today.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine for a minute that you\u2019re the CEO of a scrappy, promising new start-up. In the beginning, it was just you and two other employees working on dinky PCs out of a 12-by-12-foot office, but things are picking up.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,1],"tags":[5,16,23],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","category-future-of-business","category-msp-advice","tag-cyber-security","tag-cybercrime","tag-free-antivirus-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sugarshot.io\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}