Brand Trust: One cyberattack is enough to lose consumer trust and custom

Trust is a cornerstone of any successful business. Some professions – hairdressers, for example – spring to mind more than others. But the fact remains: every brand is built on trust, and once it’s broken, a loss of custom almost certainly follows.

In today’s digital economy, consumers have more choice than ever when it comes to spending their hard-earned cash. In such a fiercely competitive environment, companies are going to great – and sometimes headline-grabbing – lengths to win customers’ attention.

The investments are significant, the expected return high. However, most companies either ignore or underestimate the most important competitive differentiator of all – trust. All the marketing in the world counts for nothing when cybercriminals use the brand to dupe loyal customers by preying on that trust.

It takes years to build a brand. A cyberattack that exposes customer data or that even simply paints the company in a negative light can cause catastrophic loss of trust in an instant. In the last twelve months, attack volumes skyrocketed, as bad actors sought to exploit the pandemic. Experts don’t expect threat levels to abate, if anything, it may well continue to rise, as hackers look to exploit the fear and confusion stemming from the pandemic and the slow return to some form of ‘new normal’.

Fortunately, all is not yet lost. Cybersecurity companies are continuing to fend off cybercriminals and consumers are slowly but surely becoming wiser to everyday threats. But there’s still more to be done in this neverending battle.

Mimecast’s latest round of research, which features insights from over 9000 adults (aged 18-65) in the Benelux, Nordics, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East.

The goal? To raise awareness, get brands on the front foot, and make loss of trust a problem CTOs and CMOs never have to face.