Total financial payouts to consumers and credit card companies stemming from Target’s massive 2013 data breach now stands at just under $50 million, with $10 million being allocated to customers and $39.4 going to multiple banks.

This figure does not include lost sales due to reputational damage and bad will. It doesn’t account for legal fees, either. And it doesn’t account for the massive distraction which was caused by ongoing settlement negotiations, court proceedings, and other time-consuming endeavors the company has since had to deal with.

According to the company’s annual earnings report, Target has now spent more than $200 million on this cybersecurity break-in; and who knows if the ordeal is even over yet. Related legal issues may drag on for many years.

What would happen to your company in the case of a breach? Researchers say you’ll pay around $145 per each record that is stolen. If you have 1,000 customer records, that’s $145,000!

There are a few things you can do to prevent this from happening. Make sure your firewall firmware is up to date and be sure you roll out cybersecurity training for your team. Consider the fact that the Target breach was the result of a single user clicking on what seemed like a harmless link! Are you 100% sure all your workers know what they shouldn’t click on? What’s more, it’s imperative that you run cybersecurity analytics on your network so that you can stay abreast of network activity in real time.

It just so happens the Apex Technology Services team is filled with experts in all of these aforementioned areas. And recently, we have made huge investments in ensuring we are up to date on the latest industry best-practices. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about cybersecurity, and are ready to jump in and bolster your network.

It’s important to note that we have new customers calling us almost weekly because they have been hit with Cryptolocker, a vicious strand of malware which encrypts data and holds it hostage until a ransom is paid. We are finding that in some cases, when we are called, not all of the business’s important data has been backed up and, in some cases, the backups haven’t been well thought out, meaning the infection is in the backups as well!

It’s important to think through your backup strategy with an MSP partner before you are infected or suffer from irreversible data loss.

So, give us a call. Our experts can help put your mind at ease and help ensure you get started on the right foot in 2016. “Success through technology” is what we’re all about, and our goal is to ensure every customer is able to focus on the most important task at hand, which is achieving business growth. Leave the cybersecurity grunt work up to us!