There are many costs associated with cyberattacks and data breaches, but one of the hardest to quantify is damage to a brand. Brand damage following a data breach is one of the most serious issues, and one that money cannot easily resolve.
Businesses can invest in cybersecurity solutions to prevent further security breaches, but when customers lose trust in a brand, they will simply take their business elsewhere. Winning customers back can be a long process. In many cases, once trust in a brand is lost, customers will leave and never return.
Consumers Expect Businesses to Protect Their Personal Data
If a company asks consumers to provide them with personal data, it is essential that steps are taken to ensure that information remains private and confidential. Consumers believe that any company that collects personal data has an obligation to protect it. A Ponemon Institute study in 2017 confirmed that to be the case. 71% of consumers believed companies that collect personal data have a responsibility to protect it. When a cyberattack occurs that results in the exposure or theft of personal data, consumers are naturally angry at a company for failing to take sufficient precautions to keep their data private.
The same survey revealed that following a data breach, two thirds of consumers lost trust in the breached company and almost a third of consumers said they had terminated their relationship with a brand following a data breach. Companies that were surveyed reported customer churn rates increased up to 7% following a breach. Another study suggests customer loss is more severe and up to 20% of customers have switched brands after their personal information was stolen from a company they did business with. A 2017 study by Gemalto suggests those figures are very conservative. The Gemalto study suggested 70% of customers would switch brands following a data breach.
Loss of Trust in a Brand can have Catastrophic Consequences
Large businesses may be able to weather the storm and regain customer trust over time, but smaller businesses can really struggle. On top of the considerable costs of mitigating a data breach, a loss of anywhere between 20% and 70% of customers would likely be the final nail in the coffin. Loss of customer trust is part of the reason why 60% of SMBs fold within 6 months of a data breach (National Cyber Security Alliance).
Blocking cyberattacks and preventing data breaches requires investment in cybersecurity solutions. Naturally, an advanced firewall is required, and solutions should be introduced to block the most common attack vectors – email for instance – but one area of cybersecurity that is often overlooked is WiFi filtering. WiFi filtering and protecting your brand go hand in hand.
WiFi Filtering and Protecting your Brand
The importance of WiFi Filtering for protecting your brand should not be underestimated. Implementing a web filtering solution shows your customers that you care about security and want to ensure they are protected when they access the Internet through your WiFi network. By implementing a WiFi filter you can prevent customers from downloading malware and ransomware and stop them from connecting to phishing websites.
A WiFi filter can also prevent users from accessing illegal content on your WiFi network. There have been cases of businesses having Internet access terminated by their ISPs over illegal online activity by users – the accessing of banned web content or copyright infringing downloads for instance.
One of the most important uses of a WiFi filter is to prevent users from accessing unacceptable content such as pornography. There is growing pressure on businesses to prevent adult content from being accessed on WiFi networks that are used by customers. McDonalds decided to implement a WiFi filter in 2016 following campaigns by consumers to make its access points family-friendly and in 2018 Starbucks was pressured into doing the same. The coffee shop chain will finally start filtering the internet on its WiFi networks in 2019.
A WiFi filter will also prevent employees from visiting malicious websites and downloading malware that gives criminals access to your internal networks and customer data, thus preventing costly, reputation damaging data breaches.
Businesses that fail to block web-based attacks are taking a major risk, and an unnecessary one considering the low cost of WiFi filtering.
Benefits of WebTitan Cloud for WiFi
Benefits of WebTitan Cloud for WiFi for include:
- Create a family-friendly, safe and secure web browsing environment
- Manage access points through a single web-based administration panel
- Protect any number of Wi-Fi access points
- Filter by website, website category, keyword term, or keyword score
- Reduce the risk of phishing attacks
- Block malware and ransomware downloads
- Inspect encrypted websites with SSL certificates
- Schedule and run reports on demand
- Gain a real-time view of internet activity
- Gain insights into bandwidth use and restrict activities to conserve bandwidth
- Integrate the solution into existing billing, auto provisioning and monitoring system through a suite of APIs
- Apply time-based filtering controls
- Multiple hosting options, including within your own data center
- Can be supplied as a white label for MSPs and resellers
- World class customer service
- Highly competitive pricing and a fully transparent pricing policy
For further information on WiFi Filtering and protecting your brand, contact the TitanHQ team today. Our cybersecurity experts will explain how WebTitan can protect your business and will be happy to schedule a product demonstration and help you set up a free trial of WebTitan to evaluate the solution in your own environment.