Today, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn’t rely on digital frameworks. Whether it be a standard website or a customer service portal, you can’t thrive without a digital presence. Unfortunately, this isn’t as simple as building a website and carrying on business as usual.
The need for a strong digital foundation and framework grows stronger each year. This comes with many conveniences, but it also comes with several unique risks. That’s why cybersecurity has never been so important, no matter what type of business you own.
A strong digital foundation can help optimize growth, maximize efficiency, and eliminate certain operational risks. However, that is only true if you invest in an ironclad, secure digital framework. Follow along as we highlight the importance of a secure, efficient digital foundation in business.
Your Digital Foundation Affects All Aspects of Business
Businesses, both online and brick-and-mortar, rely on large teams to operate and serve customers. However, there’s never been a bigger emphasis on a business’s online presence than now. This is why building a strong online infrastructure is more important than ever, and it comes with many unknowns.
That is, if you aren’t a cybersecurity professional. Cybersecurity professionals share many of the same skills as accountants, and there is some crossover. That includes adaptability, communication, problem-solving, and data analysis.
Today, your business is only as good as the behind-the-scenes digital infrastructure it has. A business can benefit from a strong financial infrastructure in many ways, including:
- Protect Customer Data
Today, finding a business that doesn’t offer online services is somewhat rare. Whether it be a laundromat, restaurant, or retailer, many businesses support online purchases. This can boost business efficiency and give customers convenience, but it’s not without risks.
Customers must entrust you with their personal and financial information, which is hard without a strong digital foundation. Today, customers won’t likely trust online businesses that aren’t password-protected and lack two-step authentication. Businesses must embrace encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) tools to protect customers.
Hiring a cybersecurity consultant is a great place to start, as they can help develop a system and train your employees. Customer data leaks can result in severe reputational damage and may leave business owners open to lawsuits. With the right system and cybersecurity team, you can avoid all of this.
- Maximize Growth
Your website won’t be easy to find unless it’s safe and well-optimized. The more efficient and professional your site is, the more likely you are to drive organic traffic to your business. This can help you widen your market reach and appeal to a larger audience.
Search engines don’t prioritize websites that are deemed unsafe, as they pose a threat to visitors. Without proper protection, like malware scanners, you may miss out on a huge portion of your demographic. Embracing cybersecurity is just as important for your rankings as embracing search engine optimization is in many ways.
- Shield Your Business
As previously mentioned, protecting customer data should be one of your top priorities with your digital foundation. However, you must also protect your business and employees from threats and data breaches. Data breaches can leave a business financially and reputationally vulnerable, and they’re hard to recover from.
Malware protection, data encryption, two-factor authentication, and one-time passwords can help prevent such crises. Employee training is something that many businesses overlook, but it can be a lifesaver. It’s worth hiring a cybersecurity team to build safe frameworks and also train your employees in cyber safety.
A cybersecurity consultant can teach your employees to identify threats and establish a plan for responding to attacks and breaches. There must be a clear plan for identifying phishing scams and containing malware before it spreads. Employee training, paired with a strong cybersecurity system, can help businesses stay secure.
- Let the Data Guide You
While you must protect customer data from outside threats, you must also use customer data to your advantage. With a robust system in place, your website continuously collects and encrypts customer data. You can use this data to refine your website and even retool your marketing strategies. 
A cybersecurity consultant can help you structure this data, so you can easily analyze it. From there, you can utilize everything from demographics and purchase history to survey results to gain a deeper understanding of each customer. Customer data is invaluable, as it can help you identify strengths, weaknesses, and untapped strategies.
Cybersecurity is Key to Business Efficiency
Businesses that neglect cybersecurity put themselves at risk for financial and reputational damage. A well-built, optimized, and secure website can not only prevent public relations disasters but also widen your reach. The safer and smoother a website is, the more likely it is to appear high in the search engine rankings, which is essential.
Today, businesses must hire cybersecurity professionals to build and optimize secure systems to protect against cyberattacks and data breaches. In doing so, you can also learn to safely organize and harness customer data to help guide your business. Customer and employee safety are key, and prioritizing them with safe, efficient digital foundations is the roadmap to modern success.
