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Cybersecurity is not cheap. Protecting your business takes time and money. At Exostar, we sometimes hear that smaller companies and suppliers see only the costs associated with cybersecurity. They have a harder time seeing the benefits. However, a supply chain is only as secure as the weakest link in the network of buyers, suppliers, and partners. That’s why investments in cybersecurity are worth every penny to organizations of every size.

According to Juniper Research, cybercrime could cost businesses over $2 trillion by 2019. That’s more than double the 2015 sum.  Cybercrime costs businesses money in a variety of ways. Sometimes there is outright theft. But, you can also lose productivity. A recent ransomware attack left pharmaceutical giant Merck and its 70,000 employees hobbled for days. Companies risk losing future revenue when breaches go public, as customers and partners shy away from organizations they no longer trust. It also costs money to repair breaches and, if necessary, to compensate the people whose data was compromised.

And outside invasions aren’t the only risks. Cybersecurity measures can also protect companies from making costly compliance mistakes. You need the right measures in place to govern access to sensitive information. Cybersecurity helps defend against both errors and unethical actions from within an organization, or when sharing information with a partner.

So how do you begin to protect yourself and the valuable eco-system of your supplier/partner network? It may seem easier to avoid risks altogether than to take the steps required to be secure. That’s one reason many companies in the A&D industry have delayed using cloud-based solutions. These solutions could benefit their business, but they are unwilling to take on the increased cybersecurity risk.

Use industry-standard solutions and follow industry best practices to offset these risks. If both the large and small organizations are in lockstep, it increases the overall security posture of the entire industry. For example, at the latest DoD DFAR industry day, Dr. John Zandargi stated 80% of cyber-attacks can be attributed to weak authentication, i.e. userid/password based. Raising authentication strength (to include another factor in addition to password, such as an OTP) for everyone fights this risk.

Exostar is uniquely able to influence the overall security posture of the industries in which we work. We support a wide community with our multi-factor authentication platform. Our strong authentication processes facilitate a secure relationships between the major players and their networks. In other words, we help ensure that every interaction is secure. That’s why many A&D organizations are finally using the secure cloud-based solutions from Exostar.

In addition, Exostar’s solutions are integral to mitigating risk. The Exostar Identity Access Management platform allows a community Single Sign-On environment. This improves security and speeds up collaboration. And Exostar Partner Information Manager facilitates data collection and sharing to manage cybersecurity compliance requirements. Being part of the Exostar community is critical for smaller organizations looking to streamline collaboration securely.

No organization can afford to ignore cybersecurity. Large and small organizations alike need to invest in the solutions and best practices that reduce their risk, and keep them safe and compliant. Relying on a secure community like the one maintained by Exostar can be one of the first steps.

Smaller organizations have unique challenges when it comes to security. Read “Protecting Sensitive Information – Do Small Companies Have a Chance?” by Exostar’s VP of IT Security, Waide Jones, to learn more.