If there’s one word that can properly sum up marketing in 2021 (so far), it is probably ‘digital’. With most of human activity making a shift to the online sphere in the past year or so, it is only natural that marketing strategies did the same. And while this change is blessed (and some may say even long overdue), we tend to focus on its advantages and opportunities, overlooking possible risks of the virtual sphere.
One of the main advantages associated with, well, everything that has anything to do with digital, is the ability to store a massive amount of information. However, there is also a downside to this virtual database - it needs to be protected well. There are a lot of bad people out there, who are just waiting to get their hands on the information stored online - and they probably don’t have very ethical intentions at heart.
From virus to virtual
We can’t discuss the digital revolution without mentioning COVID-19, the most prominent recent catalyst behind it. Today vaccines are keeping us safe from the disease, but for the past year, the only way to live alongside it - and we all know by now that it is not going anywhere in the near future - was to distance ourselves from one another.
This naturally created a need to do everything virtually, whether it’s commerce, communication, administration, or anything else. Good thing that the internet exists, huh? However, now that life is showing signs of returning to normal, we’ve already realized how much the online world can give us, and this shift is basically irreversible.
This means, in terms of marketing, that a lot of activity that moved online in 2020 is probably going to stay there. “Overall, this is good news for humanity,” said Omer Anatot, a digital entrepreneur with a specialty in marketing and business development, “think of all of the time and energy saved due to the fact that everything happens with just one click in the virtual world.”
Under lock and key?
However, A lot of digital marketers don’t seem to be preoccupied with internet security. “As someone who has invested in dozens of technological startups and innovations, I know just how important things like encryption and database privacy are,” continued Omer Anatot. “Marketers think, ‘why would any hacker be interested in the info I collect for some small business I work for?’ Well, you should know that 43% of cyber-attacks in 2020 were aimed at small businesses.
“This is a good reason to allocate a part of your budget to proper security - and it’s on the marketer’s shoulders to do so, not the business. In all of the projects I’ve had the honor of being a part of - Hotbar, ironSource, myQuest, AI Commerce Solutions and the rest - I’ve always insisted on proper information encryption. Now that awareness of this matter is slowly and gradually rising, I predict that it’s going to become a common demand.”
Want a good example from recent times? In the first few months of the COVID-19 crisis alone, over 12,000 cybercrimes related to the pandemic were recorded by the FBI. This could be phishing scams executed by people pretending to be health officials, or even malware planted as a result of fake news. The possibilities are endless, especially with a lot of people stuck at home, in front of a computer, and under a lot of pressure.
But wait, there’s also good news
“Opportunistic cybercrime is not showing any signs of slowing,” remarked Alex Holland, senior malware analyst at HP. That’s probably why approximately $6 trillion is projected to be invested in cybersecurity in 2021 alone. But there’s a bright side here. As the crooks get braver and more sophisticated, new methods of protection against them are being developed. And, since there is a multitude of companies and startups dealing with cybersecurity, there’s a wide array of service providers to choose from.
Protect your information. Nobody’s going to do it for you.
In this sense, cybersecurity services are no different when it comes to competition’s effect on pricing. While cybersecurity is a greater necessity in 2021 than it was, say, just five years ago, it also comes at a much cheaper cost. And here’s another interesting number to remember: 19 out of every 20 cyber-attacks are a result of human error. So, while making sure you hire top-notch people to take care of your information, you can also take a big step toward cybersecurity, just by being careful.
