Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to profit from businesses’ IT vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, these bad actors only have to execute their strategy once to inflict incredible long-term damage on a company. This complicated threat landscape makes it especially important that businesses regularly assess their cybersecurity stance to ensure that they are ready to defend whatever comes their way.

Regardless of the attack methodology, cybersecurity events are incredibly costly for companies. In this case, Pitney Bowes was punished by investors, lost revenue opportunities, and endured reputational damage that will have long-term implications for the company. Given the high cost of recovery, pursuing robust cybersecurity services is a bargain.

Cybersecurity has taken center stage among customers and employees, and both are demonstrating an unwillingness to work with companies that can’t protect their information. Especially for companies operating in a crowded and competitive market, top-shelf cybersecurity standards are a prerequisite to a thriving business model.

Despite your best efforts, phishing attacks will likely make their way into your employees’ inboxes at some point. Fortunately, comprehensive awareness training can empower employees to sidestep ongoing efforts at gaining access to your network and compromising your data. Given the growing costs associated with a data breach, the ROI on cybersecurity best practices is remarkably clear, and should be required for every employee with an email account.

Today’s customers value cybersecurity as highly as any other component of a company. This incident broadly publicized the company’s shortcomings, inviting media and customer scrutiny and serving as a warning for other companies to protect their IT environment at every level. This time, the breach was merely embarrassing, but the next one could be devastating.