THEFT. It’s a serious word. You lock your business doors at night to protect your physical property; you carry property insurance to make sure a loss doesn’t impact your operations.
But what happens when your electronic property is stolen?
You may be thinking, “I’m a small business! No one would target me!” Wrong. According to a recent Travelers Insurance survey, 60% of cyber events affected small and midsized companies. The average cost of compliance for each personal record stolen is $934. Chubb, another insurance partner, reported that the number of cyber exposure incidents has increased 1000% percent since 2009. Times have changed!
Cyber theft is no longer a question of IF. It’s a question of WHEN!
What is cyber theft?
- An outside entity works its way past your firewall and into your computer system to steal data, hold your systems for ransom, or place malware.
What kind of data is a hacker looking for?
- Valuable cyber data includes not only financial account information, but your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and the PII of your clients as well. PII is information that can be used to identify, contact, locate or impersonate.
Why should a business pay attention? Compliance costs and exposures!
- Cyber theft is expensive, both in dollars and in damage to your reputation and brand! If you’ve read the headlines lately, you know that the public outcry is loud and the consequences dire for companies that experience a cyber theft. Companies that spent decades building a reputation of trust can see it all swept away overnight.
- If hackers access your data, you are required by law to notify every person whose PII might have been stolen.
- The costs to research the breach, notify clients and provide appropriate compensation can be hundreds of dollars per record.
Isn’t this something only a large company needs to worry about?
- Unfortunately, the size of your company isn’t a protection against cyber theft. Cyber criminals target the unprepared. The high cost of a cyber attack should encourage companies (large and small) to create a plan to minimize the potential for a breach and mitigate the effects should it happen. Do you have a safety net in place?
How can I prevent cyber theft from affecting my business?
- A cyber insurance policy gives you not only the ability to transfer risk, but also it gives you access to cyber-crime experts who will act as an advisor and be your advocate after an event has happened. Contact your insurance professional for more information.
- Make time today to review your cyber security policies and procedures. A simple step like creating stronger passwords and changing them regularly can go a long way!
- Talk to us about your risk. One of our values at LD&B is “service first.” That means we will give you our best advice to help YOU, not push you into a decision that benefits us. We can help you evaluate your risk and plan appropriately!
