The Impacts of Phishing on a Business

A phishing attack can have a several impacts on a business that will represent the business in a bad light. Phishing attacks can cause data breaches that have an average cost of $3.86 million. This loss of money is determined by a number of factors, including the reputational damage, loss of company value, and business disruption. 

A company that experiences a serious breach would not be able to keep that in the dark. The employees, partners, and customers will have an untrustworthy perception of the business if a data breach takes place. The publicity that comes with a severe data breach can destroy the reputation of a company’s brand. If this were to happen to your brand, your company would essentially lose employees, partners, and customers.

For loss of company value and business disruption, let’s put this into perspective. Take a look at the top five most costly phishing attacks according to The SSL Store:

1. Between 2013-2015, Facebook and Google were scammed out of $100 million through an elaborate invoice scam.
2. Crelan Bank in Belgium lost $75.8 million in a CEO fraud attack.
3. FACC, an Austrian aerospace parts maker, lost $61 million in a CEO fraud scam.
4. Upsher-Smith Laboratories, a U.S. drug company, lost more than $50 million over the course of three weeks due to phishers impersonating the CEO.
5. Ubiquiti Networks, a U.S. computer networking company, was unaware that it had been taken for $46.7 million through CEO fraud emails and was notified of the activity by the FBI.

Now remember, these are examples of how much money the company lost solely due to the phishing attacks. These dollar amounts do not account for the loss of users, partners, and/or employees that the company will be facing. These attacks have caused companies to lose up to, but not limited to, 40% of customers. This results in a completely different form of loss when considering customers and employees may no longer find the company trustworthy, do not want to give them their business any longer, and typically will not return to this company. For a longer, more detailed list of companies that have been affected by phishing attacks, take a look at the article we found on The SLL Store’s blog.

CHR Managed Service recently uploaded a blog referencing actions you can take to prevent phishing attacks. You can check it out here.