To security leaders, the drivers for cyber resilience may be obvious: less downtime, fewer successful attacks and faster resolution to name a few. But, cyber resilience also has other meaningful business-level impacts.

Cyber attacks can result in substantial financial losses due to data breaches, system downtime, legal costs and penalties, as well as reputational damage. Cyber resilience measures help minimize these losses by reducing both the likelihood and impact of attacks. Verizon’s just-released Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) notes that the financial impact of data breaches is increasing: the average cost of a data breach is now $4.24 million, up from $3.86 million in 2021, with ransomware accounting for one out of every four breaches.

Organizations that demonstrate strong cyber resilience earn the trust of their customers, partners, and stakeholders. By protecting sensitive data and ensuring business resilience and continuity, organizations can maintain their reputations and competitive advantage. From our own research, the ROI for cyber resilience strategies can be as high as 5 to 1.

Remember, too, that consumers are also negatively affected by cyber attacks. The Colonial Pipeline hack resulted in gas shortages across the Southeast of the United States. Attacks against healthcare systems have created chaos for hospitals and patients alike.

As a joint Forbes and IBM report wisely notes: Winning back trust also has a profound cost. Consumer confidence is a clear differentiator for business. Digital trust is defined by ISACA as “the confidence in the relationship and transactions among providers and consumers within the digital ecosystem. This includes the ability of people, organizations, process and technology to create and maintain a trustworthy digital world.”

Cyber resilience is closely tied to regulatory compliance requirements in many industries. Class action lawsuits are driving change. The settlements in data breach class actions have reached well into the millions of dollars: Solarwinds ($26 million); Equifax ($575 million); Home Depot ($200 Million); Capital One ($190 Million); Uber ($148 Million); Morgan Stanley ($120 Million); and Yahoo! ($85 Million). And these class actions, along with a matured understanding of the role of government to protect organizations, stakeholders, and consumers have led to a radically transformed regulatory environment. Just consider the changes coming into play with the SEC’s cybersecurity rules or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

In a digital landscape where cyber threats are pervasive and constant, organizations that prioritize cyber resilience are set to gain a competitive edge. Customers, investors, and partners are more likely to choose organizations that demonstrate a robust cybersecurity posture and the ability to withstand cyber attacks.

Gartner reports that “By 2025, lack of talent or human failure will be responsible for over half of significant cyber incidents.” The same research also predicts that by 2027, 50% of large enterprise CISOs will adopt human-centric security design practices. Achieving cyber resilience goals allows your organization to gain and retain cyber talent in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

Remember Benjamin Franklin’s adage on the merits of fire awareness and prevention: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Downtime costs may not be survivable for many organizations, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises where competition is fierce. Uptime Institute’s 2022 Outage Analysis Report found that more than 60% of outages ended up costing businesses more than $100,000. Even worse: 15% cost over $1 million.