The World Teleport Association (WTA) has released Budgeting for Cybersecurity, a new research report that shares benchmarks for IT and cybersecurity spending and a structured approach to establishing and justifying a budget. “The pressure is on teleport operators to put effective cybersecurity measures in place, whether from boards of directors, customers or government agencies,” said executive director and report author Robert Bell. “Our report offers benchmarks on IT and cybersecurity spending, what the spending goes to, and how executives can develop and defend a budget that provides the effective protection they need.” WTA members can access the report by signing in to their accounts on the WTA website. The report is available free and exclusively to WTA members.
An executive with a major cybersecurity firm recently conducted an experiment via Twitter. She sent a tweet to industry decision-makers for her service and asked them the following question: “Cybersecurity budgets come in many sizes. How does your company determine yours?” Among the answers that surprised her were: “Pick a number and subtract that number from itself. That’s your budget.” Even if you’re a bit hazy on cybersecurity, you probably agree that this is not the smartest way to plan for the costs of protection. Particularly when the average cost of a data breach to small businesses ranges from US$120,000 to $1.24 million, and the average across all businesses is $3.92 million, according to IBM’s 2019 Cost of a Data Breach report. Good planning and budgeting are needed. Cybersecurity is one of those expenses, like insurance, that we would rather not pay. Today, it has become just as necessary as insurance to the continuity of the business. That makes good budgeting tools an important part of the teleport operator’s business arsenal.