When we discuss cyber security, we often talk about financial figures, data encryption, and reputation management. However, we rarely discuss the visceral, human cost of a significant cyber incident. To put it into perspective, on a scale of emotional pain, experiencing a catastrophic cyber attack on your business is often described as feeling worse than being made redundant. In fact, many business owners have confided that it sits similar or only slightly below the thought of losing a child.
It is, quite simply, one of the worst feelings you may ever experience in your lifetime.
The Reality of the Impact
If this statement feels exaggerated to you, it is likely for one of two reasons. Firstly, you may have severely underestimated the potential impact and are yet to experience it. Or, you might have suffered a “near miss” an incident that was contained before it could inflict its full potential damage.
Consider the absolute devastation felt by the owners and employees of Levitas Capital and the transport company KNP. Both organisations were forced to cease operations permanently following cyber security incidents. These were not just business closures; they represented the destruction of livelihoods for every member of staff and the erasure of years of hard work by the owners.
The weight of this situation goes beyond the balance sheet. It is the overwhelming guilt of knowing that your employees have lost their jobs. It is the realisation that the business you spent years building has crumbled. This is compounded by the knowledge that the warning signs were there. You likely saw the news articles about other companies being hacked. You may have received offers for security assessments or “quick checks” that highlighted vulnerabilities, yet these were pushed to the side. You might have thought, “it will be okay.”
That assumption that “it will be okay” can lead to the worst day of your life. The trauma from such an event is profound, with many business leaders experiencing symptoms akin to PTSD for a decade or more after the event.
The Illusion of Safety
There are millions of cyber attackers operating globally, constantly scanning for weaknesses. If they have not found you yet, it is not necessarily because your defences are impenetrable; it may simply be that you have been lucky in a sea of millions of potential targets. This luck often breeds a dangerous sense of contentment. You wait, unprotected, for a day that could dismantle everything you have built.
When the Call Comes
At Vertex Cyber Security, we often receive calls from businesses when they are in the thick of this crisis. Frequently, these calls come a week after the incident began, after internal teams have attempted to fix the issue themselves—often inadvertently making the situation worse because they lack the specific expertise required for incident response.
We can see the emotional pain on their faces and hear the tremors in their voices. When we tell them, “This is likely the worst day of your life,” they almost always nod in agreement. At that stage, we cannot guarantee a successful outcome, particularly when there has been a significant delay in engagement. However, our mission is to provide the best cyber security for all, and we commit to doing our utmost to guide them through the storm.
There is Hope
Despite the severity of these threats, recovery is possible with the right expertise. To date, we have helped every client we have engaged with to eradicate the cyber attacker, remove backdoors, and get their business back to an operational state.
In one notable instance, we assisted a company that had lost administrative access to their systems. Although they waited a week before engaging us, we were able to help them regain access, remove the cyber threats, and lock down their systems within 48 hours. They had underestimated the attacker, and it nearly ended their business. Had they waited even a few hours longer to call us, there might have been nothing left to save.
Don’t Wait for the Worst Day
The emotional toll of a cyber incident is devastating, but it is not inevitable. You do not have to wait for the worst day of your life to take action.
If you want to avoid this trauma and protect your business, employees, and legacy, we invite you to invest in your cyber security. Reach out to the experts at Vertex Cyber Security for a conversation about how we can help you secure your future.