Springfield is a nice, safe place to live and work. Yet things haven’t always been tranquil here. After all, Springfield was the site of America’s first recorded shootout–the one between Wild Bill Hickock and Davis Tutt. With that, the Wild West era began.

While you may feel utterly safe walking down a Springfield street now, cybersecurity is a completely different matter. Cyber threats can happen anywhere there’s an internet connection. It takes excellent network security to keep you safe, not only in Springfield but wherever you might be. What many people don’t realize, though, is that same great security saves you money, too. Here’s how.

Keeps You Compliant

New government regulations relating to data management and cybersecurity have increased in recent years. This trend for more security regulations will almost certainly continue as technology advances. Complying with state and federal regulations is an absolute must if you want to have a viable business. Here’s what can happen if you don’t manage to do remain compliant:

• Your company’s legal status could change.
• Government audits will become a big part of your life.
• You may be fined.
• The government might dissolve your business entirely.

In 2018, Missouri enacted a cybersecurity law that established the Joint Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Awareness. A part of the committee’s job is to study and investigate issues related to cybersecurity. Springfield businesses, like those in other Missouri cities, will be under their watchful eye. So it’s more important than ever to stay compliant.

Helps You Maintain Your Customer Base

The people in the customer base you’ve already developed trust you. If they didn’t, you can be sure they’d take their business elsewhere. Once a data breach happens, many customers will run to a new company and never look back.

Take for instance the 2013 cyber attack on Target. The personal information from up to 70 million people was stolen, and the cyber criminals had access to millions of credit and debit card accounts.

So, how did people react to that? Many people still haven’t been back to Target since they heard the news. Others go there occasionally, but they now only use cash. Of course, Target hasn’t gone under. Some people seem to have forgotten the incident. Yet Target has had to put a huge amount of effort and money into marketing campaigns designed to regain the public’s trust. They even went so far as to provide free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for anyone who shopped at their stores. Without these costly measures, Target had little hope of staying in business.

Your business may not be as big as Target, but you still need cybersecurity to prevent the same thing from happening at the scale of business you’re at right now. If you’re a small to medium business, it wouldn’t take a breach of the magnitude of Target’s to lose you most of your customers. You need good, solid network security for your Springfield, Missouri business to keep your customers coming back to you month after month.

Helps You Avoid Lawsuits and Settlements

If your networks aren’t secure, you could lose more than customer loyalty. You could also be sued. You’re responsible for keeping your customers’ data safe. If you fail, lawsuits are sure to follow. Then, whether you lose by judgment or settle the case outside of court, the cyber-attack could cost you big-time.

What can you do when hackers are always there in the background, seeking to take whatever they want? No I.T. company can guarantee that security threats will never happen. With proper network security, though, you can identify cyber threats and resolve them before they compromise your customers’ data. And, with each cyber attack you avoid, you prevent paying out money for legal fees, judgments, and settlements.

Helps Prevent Embezzlement

When you give your employees access to your networks, they may develop the ability to siphon off your funds through your networks to line their pockets. Of course, you only hire people you believe you can trust. Yet, other employers have thought the same thing and been burned.

How can network security help you avoid this potential nightmare? A highly-skilled I.T. team can provide the kind of network security that will pick up on unusual activities and get to the bottom of the issue as quickly as possible. You keep your money, and your networks are secured.

Improves Your Efficiency

When you aren’t doing things as efficiently as possible, you’re paying more in wages to accomplish your goals. An insecure network can be a major drain on your resources, partly because your employees spend too much time “putting out fires.” When you choose to put up with an insecure network, you accept the time and cost of dealing with each security issue individually (and usually ineffectively).

The best security software automates many of these processes, adding efficiency to your processes. When you combine this software with a knowledgeable I.T. services provider, you streamline your security processes to minimize the cost of doing business in the digital age.

It always pays to have good network security. It keeps you compliant with state and federal regulations so that your business can continue to thrive. With good security, you can keep the customers’ trust to increase your sales. You need a secure network to avoid lawsuits from without and embezzlement from within. With a secure network, your employees can increase their efficiency by staying focused on your company mission.

Learn more about how you can make your network more secure by contacting JMARK, a managed services provider based in Springfield, Missouri. Call us at 844-44-JMARK, email us at [email protected], or send us a message through our Contact Us page. We’re ready to help you take the next step towards securing your networks now and keeping them safe in the months and years ahead. When you do, you’ll see how cybersecurity can increase your bottom line.