Cyber Security and Your Business

Nearly every business collects and handles sensitive information and cyber security is an essential concern for owners. Even if you only collect paper files, you are at risk of a data breach. The risk of honest mistakes (such as emailing sensitive information to a mistyped address) as well as threats from bad actors (such as scammers and hackers) are higher than they’ve ever been. Data can be stolen or mishandled both on and offsite by multiple parties and the best practice for any business involves education, prevention, and protection.

Education is pretty straightforward: Take time to learn what threats there are in general as well as to your specific industry. Do you use mobile technology? Would a misplaced phone or laptop leave sensitive information exposed? Is your industry a target for certain types of attacks?

Prevention means taking steps to safeguard your information. It could be password protecting your devices, two-factor authentication, firewalls, securing data from employees that do not need access to it, etc. Some of these solutions require IT services and some are a matter of company practice.

Finally, there is Protection. Do you have a Cyber Insurance policy in place to protect your business and your assets in the event of a data loss or lawsuit? Protection is two-fold. First, you need to protect your first-party exposure. That means protecting the information and systems your business relies on to function. If a payment or processing systems goes down for a significant period of time, would you suffer a financial hit? How severe would that hit be? Secondly, you need to protect your third-party exposure. That means protecting yourself from lawsuits or penalties if you are liable for the leaked or stolen data of your customers, vendors, partners, etc. All of us can probably recall at least one instance when a company notified us that some of our personal data had been compromised.

As an insurance agent, we offer solutions to that Protection piece of the equation. A Cyber Liability policy can protect your business from both first and third party claims and keep your business running. Reach out to us today to discuss your options as a policy may be cheaper than you think!