Does Your Business Have the Cyber Coverage It Needs?

We read in the news regularly that large retailers are being significantly impacted by cybercrime. Unfortunately, 54% of small businesses believe they are too small to be worried about cyberattacks. However, when you break down the numbers, you will find that 43% of cyberattacks target small business. And 60% of those small businesses end up going out of business within 6 months of the event. This means most small businesses are not prepared for these types of events, and it is too late once they happen. Managing cyber risk requires having effective technology controls, sound business practices, and appropriate insurance coverage.

To help protect your business, cyber insurance is a great idea. Listed below are key elements of protection to consider when selecting your coverage:

• Identity Protection. Millions of people report having their identities compromised each year, with total losses nationwide exceeding $25 billion. When you are a retail business owner or key member of a business, having your identity stolen can become a real business concern. You are the face of your brand and the impact on your identity can create significant challenges. Identity recovery pays the expenses required to correct damage to an individual’s credit ratings and to restore personal identity.  
• Liability Protection. Unauthorized access to your system can occur and the damage could be very costly to manage. This damage may include access to third-party information, malware, or denial-of-service attacks. As a small retail business, having customer information in some form is usually part of your business operation. Cyber liability protects you if you are sued for costs of defense, settlement, or judgments. Certain coverages will include both first-party and third-party coverage.
• Data Breach Protection. Does your business store personal information? Does your business operation use laptops, USB flash drives, tablets, or cellphones? Do you have employees who have access to any of this information? If you said yes to any of these questions, you have data that could be at risk. As a small retail business, customer information is a fact of business, and it is critical to do everything you can to protect it. Data breach coverage pays for response expenses and defense and liability costs.  

Having antivirus software is not enough to protect what you have worked so hard to build. Cyber criminals never stop looking for ways to gain access to your system and trying to keep up with them can be time consuming and costly. Cyber insurance can give you peace of mind and help provide the support you need.