In today’s world, experiencing a cyber-attack is no longer a rare occurrence. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, 43% UK businesses experienced a large increase in cyber-attacks over the last year.
And with high-profile cases like M&S and Jaguar Land Rover, it’s all too apparent how devastating these hacks can be.
Data Loss
The most significant impact a cyber-attack has on any business is the immediate loss of sensitive data, which is the direct cause of every other problem that results afterwards.
High-profile clients, employee information, all of it can fall into the hands of cyber criminals which they can then use for nefarious purposes.
Lengthy Downtime
Whatever form a cyber-attack takes, your business will need significant time to recover. This is because their target is always critical functions which will disable your IT services.
All that time you spend looking into cyber insurance, restoring backups, and removing any viruses from your network is time your business isn’t running its daily operations.
No work, no progress, no money. The average downtime after a ransom attack is 24 days. That can be enough to kill a company if they’re down for that long.
Tarnished Trust
Some of the worst damage a cyber-attack can do is to your reputation. An Experian survey shows that 69% of people would be unlikely to use a company after a data breach.
If your business becomes the target of a cyber-attack, many will take that as a sign that you’re untrustworthy and any data they give you will be at risk.
Legal Liability & Fines
A cyber-attack can lead to all sorts of legal ramifications which can further drain your finances.
The most obvious of these are hefty fines which can be levied against you if an investigation reveals your company didn’t perform its due diligence and ensure all sensitive information was secured.
Frequent studies show that business pay, on average, nearly £200,000 in legal fees. M&S, who were the victims of such an attack, now face losing up to £300m.
Cybersecurity Is the New Norm
All this goes to show is that cybersecurity isn’t a “just in case” scenario. It has become essential to avoid the catastrophic consequences cyber-attacks bring with them.
Every business going forward must become Cyber Essentials certified to make themselves 80% less likely to experience a cyber-attack and 92% less likely to make a cyber insurance claim.
In short, cybersecurity is the backbone of your company’s daily operations and must be upheld to prevent financial and reputational loss, and prolonged downtime.
Get All Your Cybersecurity Essentials with bSecured
Feeling overwhelmed with your business’ cybersecurity concerns? With bSecured, you can get all the best cybersecurity solutions all in one package.
Our expert team can quickly and effectively provide robust IT support, securing your sensitive data against the most common cyber threats.
If you want to learn how Bells IT Support can help your business be more secure, visit our contact page to get in touch and learn more by speaking to one of our team.