Cyber-Liability & Data Breach Protection

Real World Threats 

As the world becomes more connected through cloud computing, social media applications, and other electronic communication methods, you and your business become more exposed to cyber threats.  Cyber threats include the following;

• Data Breach
• Privacy Breach
• Transmission of a computer virus to another business’ network
• Copyright infringement on your website
• Defamation or libel.  (social media and blogs)
• Lost or stolen laptop, PDA, or smartphone
• Lost, stolen, or improperly disposed paper records and files
• Credit card skimming
• Denial of service attack
• E-commerce extortion
• Outdated malware or anti-virus software resulting in non-pci compliance.

E-commerce is now more the rule than the exception.  Businesses that want to grow and attract new customers must make the transaction and customer experience convenient.  These conveniences include everything from a mom and pop shop accepting credit cards to an online retailer selling products through a mobile app.  While technology can help increase sales and build loyalty among a customer base, it also presents new threats.

Most businesses do the simple things like update anti-virus software, periodically update hardware, and change passwords frequently.  These are essential steps to protecting customer data and certainly help protect against a data breach, but have you developed a plan for reacting to a data breach?  Has management considered the following questions?

• What are the legal requirements if my business suffers a breach?
• How will the business deal with a reduction in revenue due to spooked customers?
• How will the business pay regulatory fines that can reach six digits?
• How quickly can we set up a call center to comply with regulations and field customer inquiries?
• How will we arrange customer credit monitoring for 12 months following the breach?  What is the per customer cost of credit monitoring?
• What is the cost of securing our systems following a data or privacy breach?

Winters-Oliver is aware of these threats and can help you answer these questions. 

Sony, Heartland Payment Systems, T.J. Maxx, Zappos and most recently, Target have all suffered serious cyber events.  If it can happen to these companies, then it can happen to most any company.  Additionally, most small business owners do not have the budget or resources that larger companies allocate to systems security.  Cyber Liability Insurance is an efficient way to transfer some of this risk away from your business.  A cyber liability policy can make answering the above questions much easier.

Contact Ben Winters or Sherwood Bowditch  at (804) 746-5178 to find our more about this unique and valuable protection.