A data breach has far-reaching consequences for any company, which makes a preventable attack like a phishing scam especially problematic. Protecting customer data means protecting your bottom line, and cybersecurity training is a low-cost initiative to ensure that phishing threats are neutralized before they compromise customer data and put your company at risk.

Restoring a network often carries similar or even higher costs, meaning that there are no good solutions once an attack occurs. In a similar breach early this year, a station estimated that they lost up to $800,000 in revenue in addition to the $500,000 recovery charge. Consequently, it’s clear that every business needs to protect its bottom line by ensuring that its cybersecurity standards align with today’s emerging threat landscape.

Customers and employees are increasingly unwilling to remain with platforms that can’t protect customer data, making data breaches a logistical and PR nightmare for any company. Therefore, when information is compromised, companies need to be swift and robust in their response. Providing supportive services that can identify how data is used after it is stolen can hasten a holistic recovery effort.

Comprehensive awareness training about the prevalence and best practices regarding phishing campaigns is a necessary step, but those initiatives have to be in place before a data breach in order to truly be effective. Phishing scams will inevitably land in your employees’ inboxes and developing a readiness posture can prevent them from exploiting additional vulnerabilities or instigating a data breach.

Despite a company’s best efforts, some phishing scams inevitably make their way to employees’ inboxes. Since a single click can compromise incredible amounts of sensitive data, businesses of all sizes must prioritize the awareness training that can render such attacks useless. With the cost of a data breach continually increasing, addressing this vulnerability can be one of your company’s best investments.