Here’s the truth: Security isn’t free. Every time you lock down a system, add a second layer of authentication, or even hire an IT security team, there’s a price tag. And guess what? That price isn’t just in dollars. It shows up in a lot of other ways, too.
Your customers might complain about the new check-out process. Your workers might grumble about the many hoops they have to jump through just to access a file. But here’s the thing: while it might feel like a hassle at first, most businesses discover pretty quickly that skimping on security can actually be more expensive.
Imagine being a victim of a breach or getting hit with a compliance fine, simply because you didn’t want to ‘inconvenience’ anyone. In 2023, Morgan Stanley was fined $6.5 million over a client data breach claim. That’s on top of the $60 million penalty they faced in 2020 for failing to properly decommission old data centers. Those numbers stack up fast.
Suddenly, both the dollar and non-dollar costs begin to feel like pocket change compared to the fallout. So, the real question isn’t whether security is expensive or not. It’s how you can make your security investments pay off.
In this article, we’ll break down the real costs of security and show why the cost of failure is almost always higher than the cost of prevention.
The Cost in Numbers
Let’s start with the cost in actual dollar amount. Strong cybersecurity takes money. It takes proper infrastructure, monitoring tools, and a skilled staff that knows how to mitigate and handle threats, all of which can be expensive.
But look at what this investment is saving you from.
According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach globally is about $4.4 million. That’s not just a number pulled out of thin air. It includes everything from downtime to legal fees to the customers you lose because they stop trusting you. Even if you’re a small or mid-sized business, the average cost is still a serious blow to your balance sheet.
Now compare to the $50,000 you spent on a solid security posture platform for your organization. Side by side, that’s a bargain.
The same IBM report revealed that organizations that invest in AI as part of their security profile saved a whopping $1.9 million in data breach costs. That’s real money saved simply because their systems caught threats faster and contained them before they spread.
Clearly, any amount you pay for cybersecurity is an investment that will pay you back when the worst happens.
The Cost in Privacy
This is one of the big problems businesses face. You need to comply with data privacy regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA (if you’re into healthcare). But customers are also worried about how this information is stored and used.
But here’s the thing: failure to comply with GDPR can earn you a fine of up to €20 million or 4% of your total turnover in a year (depending on how severe the violation is). Run a health care organization? You’re looking at about $25,000 per violation category.
And guess what? The same customers who complain that you’re invading their privacy will be the first to abandon your business after a data breach.
The good news is that this problem can be handled, and automated identity verification is the way to go about it. AU10TIX is one of the companies setting the pace in this field.
The idea is simple.
A customer snaps a photo of their passport, driver’s license, or ID. The system checks for security features and screens for signs of forgery. If it’s a liveness check, the user takes a quick selfie, and the system looks for signs that confirm it’s a real person. More details about automated identity verification can be found on the AU10TIX company profile.
It all happens in seconds. No long uploads. No guessing where the documents will end up. And definitely less risk compared to manual reviews, which take more time and can be compromised.
The Cost in Convenience
No one likes taking extra steps to log in. Multi-factor authentication, long, complex password requirements, and KYCs tend to slow people down. Employees complain, and customers get frustrated. In fact, Mastercard reports that 21% of abandoned carts happen because shoppers got frustrated with the lengthy checkout process.
This lengthy checkout process can be caused by long forms, confusing fields, required account creation, KYC requirements, extra ID verification steps, and so much more.
But here’s the thing: the small inconveniences prevent major incidents like account takeover or shopping fraud. And when things like these happen, it’s not just your business finances that suffer; your reputation suffers, too.
A 10-second inconvenience for your employee or customer can prevent a cyber-incident that could ruin your week, your quarter, or your whole company.
The good news is that convenience and security don’t have to be enemies. Modern solutions like biometrics, using a fingerprint or a face scan, can work for your employees. This way, they don’t have to enter a string of passwords + 2FA anytime they want to log in.
And on the e-commerce side, you can use options like Apple Pay or Google Pay to speed things up dramatically. Apple Pay, for instance, processes transactions 65% faster than manual card entry. With this approach, you’re securing your business and at the same time, limiting inconvenience to your customers.
The Cost in Performance
Finally, there’s the cost you have to pay in terms of system performance. We’ve all been there. Even with your personal PC, install an antivirus, and you suddenly start noticing some lag. Update your Windows, and you may notice that your PC has slowed down.
That’s basically how it works, even for enterprise systems. Encryption, secure protocols, and continuous monitoring eat up computing resources. It’s physics.
Of course, modern systems will handle these demands very well, but if your business is still using equipment from the last decade, you’ll definitely pay the cost of security in performance.
The alternative is to simply ignore security, which you don’t want to do. Why? Because any performance cost is far outweighed by the risk of breaches.
In fact, the chances of suffering a cyber breach because you didn’t want to strain your system with up-to-date security are very high. According to cybersecurity experts, roughly 60% of cyber issues happen because of unpatched vulnerabilities, and not even sophisticated exploits. You get the point. Better a slow system than no business.
But there’s a workaround. Investing in cloud-based cybersecurity solutions can offload much of the strain from your local systems, giving you both security and better performance.
Of course, these tools aren’t a magic bullet. They still use some resources and require a reliable internet connection, but they’re a practical way to balance speed and security.
Wrapping Up
No one is going to lie to you and say security doesn’t have its trade-offs. It does. But these trade-offs are an investment in the resilience of your business. Cutting corners might help you save a few dollars or avoid a few of these trade-offs, but what about the future?
At the end of the day, the question should not be “how much is too much?” The real question should be, “Can you afford the true cost of insecurity?”
