E-Business
The Costs of Cyberattacks: How one Breach can Sink a Business
In today’s interconnected world, cyberattacks are more frequent and more dangerous than ever before. Businesses, regardless of size or industry, are prime targets for cybercriminals.
These attacks can cause widespread damage and create long-lasting consequences. Kaspersky dives into the impact of cyberattacks on business and reveals the key losses that an unprotected business can suffer.
When we consider the impact of cyberattacks on business, the first thing we pay attention to is financial losses. An example of an incident with huge financial losses is the attack on Johnson Controls, a major player in the building technology sector that faced a significant ransomware incident perpetrated by the Dark Angels hacking group.
The attackers claimed to have stolen 27 terabytes of sensitive data and demanded a $51 million ransom. This breach resulted in severe disruptions to the company’s systems and cost over $27 million in damages.
The attack impacted Johnson Controls’ business operations, including disruptions to its billing systems and increased recovery expenses. As a company with a global presence, the breach significantly affected its business relationships and operations.
Below, Kaspersky explores several key ways a cyberattack can hurt your business.
Financial losses
Cyberattacks often result in direct financial losses. Ransomware attacks, where hackers demand payment to restore access to data or directly steal funds, are a clear example. But this is only the beginning, as there are numerous other consequences that may result in considerable indirect financial losses. These can easily exceed what the company has lost as an immediate outcome of the incident.
Operational disruption
Cyberattacks can grind your operations to a halt. Many businesses depend on their digital infrastructure for daily activities. If systems are compromised, productivity falls. In severe cases, entire operations may be disrupted for days or even weeks, resulting in lost revenue, diminished service quality and disappointed clients and partners — an additional impact on your company’s reputation.
Indirect long-term costs
Even following the immediate aftermath of a cyberattack, businesses often face long-term financial impacts. Restoring systems, improving cybersecurity infrastructure, and managing the legal fallout are just some of the lingering costs. Additionally, lost business and damaged customer relationships can take months or years to rebuild.
Reputational damage
The trust your clients place in you is invaluable. If customer data is stolen in a breach, it can severely damage your brand’s reputation. This loss of trust can lead to customers leaving and a long-term decline in business. In some cases, a single breach is enough to ruin a company’s public image beyond repair.
If your business falls victim to an attack, it can also impact your relationships with partners and vendors. Third-party partners might lose confidence in your ability to protect shared data. Similarly, business-critical relationships could be jeopardised if you fail to recover quickly or if your systems compromise their operations.
Legal and compliance issues
With data protection regulations such as the GDPR in Europe, POPIA in South Africa or HIPAA in the U.S., a data breach can lead to heavy fines. Failing to protect sensitive customer or employee data may result in penalties and lawsuits. Furthermore, companies that fall victim to breaches often face lengthy legal battles, which add to the financial and reputational strain.
Loss of intellectual property
For many businesses, intellectual property (IP) is among their most valuable assets. Cyberattacks targeting IP can steal product designs, marketing strategies, and proprietary information.
This is particularly harmful in competitive industries like technology and pharmaceuticals, where IP theft can erase the advantage a company has spent years building.
“Attackers are never idle – they’re like wolves who must be constantly active to catch their prey off-guard. So, companies need to be ever more alert and agile. They must be sure they have the right solutions and processes to allow for effective threat discovery and containment, as well as swift recovery.
“At Kaspersky, we’re deeply committed to delivering the agile security that businesses need. Proactive assessments and multi-layered protective solutions, plus managed security and actionable threat intelligence – we have it all.
“What’s more important, we have the expertise to put together the exact cybersecurity structure for your individual profile. Only a consistent and comprehensive approach, like this one, can ensure true business resilience against today’s cyber risks,” comments Oleg Gorobets, Security Evangelist at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
SEC Alerts Public on Silverkuun, Trending Dubious Investment Schemes
Glo, Huawei, Communications Ministry Bring Digital Services to Abuja Village
PalmPay Launches CSR Initiatives to Empower Women, Foster Financial Literacy in Northern Nigeria
Tripoint Travels Hosts Pre-GEC Brunch for Nigerian Delegates Ahead of Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2025
Africa Cross-border Payments Set to Hit $1 trillion by 2035
E-Financial2 days agoFidelity Bank Plc Wins 2025 DBN Innovation Award for MSME Support
E-Business2 days agoNigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa
E-Business2 days agoNDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres
Telecom1 day agoMTN Nigeria Invests ₦900Bn in 2025 to Boost Network Quality in Lagos & Abuja
Telecom2 days agoVitel Wireless Completes Interconnectivity with all Major Telcos in Nigeria
Telecom2 days agoMTN inducted into Brand Africa Hall of Fame
General News2 days agoNigeria Approves $500m for AfDB’s Trust Fund Replenishment over Next 15 Years
Telecom2 days agoeBusiness Life Girls In ICT: Stakeholders Call For More Action On Girls Participation In ICT