When you think of smart investments, you may think of real estate, stocks or the latest tech startups. However, there’s another kind of investment that pays both in the immediate and the long-term cybersecurity. This investment is essential to protect businesses from costly cyberattacks, and it helps to avoid costly fines as well as losing customers’ trust.

As digital transformation transforms business operations of businesses, they produce, manipulate and store an ever-growing amount of data. This data must be managed across a variety of complex computing environments. These environments frequently span cloud and enterprise data centers as well as numerous connected devices, including Internet of Things sensors and robots. This added complexity creates a more threatening attack surface, making it harder to protect critical data from loss and compromise.

In addition to the financial cost of data breaches, they can also affect a company’s image and lead to long-term sales losses. A recent study has revealed that the average cost of a data breach is around $4 million – an impact that is difficult for any business to absorb. Regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act or the General Data Protection Regulation also punish companies with severe penalties who fail to adhere to the strict security standards.

In today’s highly competitive market an effective cybersecurity posture is crucial data optimization for improved performance to gaining traction. A preventative pound is worth a pound cure, and it’s far more cost-effective to invest in preventative measures than paying for cleanup and recovery after an incident. Utilizing the appropriate tools and technology, companies can ensure that their data is secure while in transit, at rest and in the middle. This means implementing encryption, focusing the human firewall, and performing regular deep-checks.