The Impact of Phishing Emails On Your Business

Every business will use emails to some extent, as they are integral to many relations within a company, such as communicating with customers and clients. Phishing attacks via email can happen to any business no matter the size and can pose a serious risk to private information and assets. This is why 90% of cyberattacks start with an email. These emails are used meticulously by cyber criminals and can look very convincing to the average person.

Understanding the risks involved with phishing emails and learning how to spot them can potentially save your business time and money. Cybercriminals have had years to develop and master new strategies to trick email users into giving away personal information, such as passwords, bank information and credit card numbers. It’s important to make yourself aware of these and implement any cyber security practices.

Continue reading this guide to help you understand phishing email risks and how you can spot them to prevent disaster for your business.

How Phishing Emails Can Impact Your Business

Financial Losses

The most obvious impact of falling victim to a phishing email scam is that you could potentially lose a large chunk of your business or personal finances. Scammers use unique emailing strategies to gain credentials and information from users that they can use to access banking accounts. They can also send fake invoices or fines that trick people into sending money.

Investment scams went from $3.31 billion in 2022 to $4.57 billion in 2023. This is a 35% rise. Businesses can fall for these types of scams just as much as individuals, which can deliver a big hit to a business’s finances. These types of financial losses can significantly slow down the company’s growth and even lead to bankruptcy.

Revolut scam emails have been on the rise recently too. This is a type of credit card service that has gained a lot of traction recently and gives cybercriminals a new means of attempting to steal finances. Fortunately, there are some debt advice options that can help you recover from Revolut scams.

Reputation Damage

Once a hacker has gained access to your account via a phishing email, they can compromise your accounts and send out spam or malicious emails pretending to be you or your organisation. The recipients of these emails can then lose trust in your business, which will heavily impact your reputation. Even if you announce a data breach, how are customers or clients able to trust a company that can get their data breached so easily? That’s why having a cybersecurity installed is very important.

Negative publicity from a data breach caused by a phishing email scam could also lead to reputational damage, as it can lead to a bad media image and public scrutiny. This will especially affect more mainstream businesses who would have a data breach make worldwide news platforms.

Customer Loss

Reputation damage can lead to heavy customer loss. Any sign that a company is susceptible to hacks and scams will negate customers from wanting to work with your business as they don’t want to risk their private information being accessed too. The perception of a company’s inability to protect customer data can destroy customer confidence and lead to a decrease in sales.

According to a 2019 survey, 44% of UK consumers stop making purchases from a business for several months following a data breach, and 41% say they would never make a purchase again. This means that almost half of your customers could completely cut ties with your business if you become a victim of a phishing email scam.

Operation Disruption

Phishing attacks can result in system failures or downtime, which can disrupt customer services and lead to dissatisfaction. Malware, ransomware or adware can be installed by hackers once they gain control of your network. These can do a lot of damage to your business, some of which are unrepairable and can have serious lasting effects.

Restoring operations within 24 hours of a phishing scam should be a priority, so it’s vital to have the right cyber security plan in place to protect your business’s digital life. However, almost half of organisations cannot solve these issues within that time which will end up costing them even more time, customers and money.

Value Loss

A business can lose a lot of value on the back of a phishing email scam. Organisations can face significant financial penalties from regulatory bodies if their data is breached due to how much personal and private information they might be letting slip. There can also be class-action lawsuits from affected customers that can result in huge financial damages. Both of these can reduce the value of your business.

British Airways had their share price dropped by 4% due to the private information that got leaked. They were able to prevent even more information from being accessed by the hackers, which is why it didn’t drop further.