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 You don’t have to search too far on the internet to come across some harrowing stories of how a data breach caused its business owners to suffer severe reputational and financial damage.

 Hacking attacks get all the headlines as the most common form of a data breach but the root cause of the issue often turns out to be a weak password or some other vulnerability that has been successfully exploited.

 Getting professional guidance and system support from someone like Essential IT, for example, could help your fledgling business avoid a disaster. The main aim for any startup has to be avoiding a data breach at all costs, especially when you consider the potential implications.

 Here is a look at the consequences of a data breach and how it can cost your new business more than money.

 Reputational damage is a real prospect

 The primary focus in the aftermath of a damaging data breach is usually financial. The average data breach can cost your business a substantial sum of money, so it is perfectly understandable that you would be mainly concerned with this aspect of such a scenario.

 However, it is not just financial damage that you have to contend with, especially when you are a new business trying to make its mark.

 Almost equally as damaging as the financial impact of a data breach is the detrimental impact it can have on your reputation. Established brands usually have to launch a high-profile charm offensive, using all of their PR know-how to limit any impact on their brand when something goes wrong.

 As a startup, you don’t have the luxury of a well-oiled PR department or a certain amount of existing goodwill to help soften the blow to your reputation.

 That means that if you suffer a data breach at such an embryonic stage of your business development it could even be very hard to recover from that sort of body blow.

 Intellectual property could be vulnerable

 If you have launched a new business and have designs in the prototype stage that you are going to unleash as part of your development that could all be thrown into chaos with a data breach.

If a hacker is able to gain access to confidential or commercially sensitive details it could be very damaging for your future plans and prospects.

 Having your competitive edge taken away at such an early stage of your business life could be a situation that you struggle to recover from.

Protecting your business’s data and key assets is something that you have to take seriously right from the start. More than half of business owners around the globe have had to contend with the fallout of a data breach and that should serve as a clear warning that your startup could be exposed to such a threat from day one of trading.

 The scenarios outlined should provoke a response that makes you consider how best to structure and protect your business systems so that you don’t suffer the sort of data breach that could spell big trouble for any new venture.