> Sorry for the provocative nature of the headline, but I suggest that you probably don’t.
Let’s take a step back for a minute … I was watching a film called the Vault the other night in which a team of salvage experts (you’ll need to watch the movie to understand what I mean) try to break into one of the world’s most impregnable banks in Madrid – and being a boring CEO of an IT company, it got me thinking about data and data storage.
Stick with me on this … Imagine you are given a bag of the finest diamonds, or a bucket full of gold bars. What would you do to keep them safe – to protect them from the thieves or opportunists who might want to relieve you of your precious riches?
My guess is you would stick them in the most secure facility you could find and afford and, just to make sure you were completely de-risked (because “spoiler alert” even the most impregnable facilities can be breached), you would insure it so you could recoup any financial losses if the unthinkable happened.
In today’s digital economy, the data you hold is more valuable than a bag of diamonds, a bucket of gold or a painting by a grandmaster.
Your data is the raw material that fuels insights, innovation, and growth for your business. It can be collected and refined so you can identify valuable patterns and trends to drive your decision making and strategy more effectively.
Data can be monetised. Companies sell access to their data, create data-driven products, and leverage it for targeted advertising. The more accurate and relevant the data, the greater its worth.
What fuels the gargantuan revenues of many of today’s giant global corporations? Data. What allows geopolitical powers and shady organisations to ‘allegedly’ influence elections? Data. Alongside power and water, what allows the awesome power of AI algorithms to work? Data. What drives the multitrillion dollar global cybercrime industry (currently estimated to be worth $8 trillion USD, with the World Economic Forum predicting that the cost of cybercrime will be a whopping $23.84 trillion USD by 2027)? Data. Should I go on?
So, if data is so important and valuable, why do so many people and businesses take the, ‘it won’t happen to me’ approach and leave it vulnerable to theft and opportunist attack? They leave it with minimal or no protection, with no back-up plan, and no insurance in place to recoup financial losses if the worst was to happen.
Don’t think that because you run a small business, or because we are tucked away here in Aotearoa New Zealand, that your data is not as valuable as that of a large global corporation – because it most definitely is.
Did you know that according to the 2023 Kaseya MSP Benchmark Survey Report, since 2020 SMB’s have experienced a 350% increase in Ransomware attacks; and that 80% of all cyber-attacks targeted the SMB market?
So, I ask you again. Do you know the value of the data that you hold? The precious information that is the lifeblood of your business and has been entrusted to you by your customers and employees.
Is it secure in the digital equivalent of the most secure financial facility in Madrid, or have you left the door wide open for an opportunist thief to steal it away, along with your reputation and quite probably, your business? If you’ve not done enough to secure your data, please do something now.
