RISK MANAGEMENT
Take a phishing attack , for example ; You ’ re the bad guy ; you have a list of 100,000 email addresses and send out a sophisticated phishing email . If only 1 % of recipients click on something in the email , you have 1000 people on the hook . In reality – it ’ s better for hackers than that . The recipient click-rate on phishing attacks for small business is around 30 %, so that number in our little example just blossomed to 30,000 clicks !
For the sake of this example , let ’ s stick to our very conservative 1 % click rate , and you ’ re still the bad guy . Imagine you launch a ransomware attack to these 1000 people and ask for $ 2,500 from each of them . ( According to Comparitech , that is the average loss for a small business ). $ 2,500 doesn ’ t sound too bad , does it ? It ’ s a lot of money , but probably bearable for most businesses to get their data back and not have to close down . Well , surveys estimate that 40 % of ransom gets paid . So , if 400 victims pay a $ 2,500 ransomware fee , you just earned a whopping $ 1,000,000 . Buy yourself a new Porsche !
And the cost to you ? Next to nothing . Ever wonder how much emails cost on the dark web ? Check out this report by VPNOverview . In the MyFitnessPal breach , our 100,000 records would have cost us less than $ 10 —$ 7.60 , to be exact . Sure , those were probably personal email addresses included in the list , but if an owner or employee checked their personal email from their work device , game on small business . And remember , it ’ s a minimal success rate needed to make this scheme work because it ’ s a numbers game . So you think your business is too small to matter ? It ’ s not when it ’ s all about volume .
Bad guys don ’ t care about what they are stealing ( not you , you ’ re a good guy again ). They care about making money . If they can ’ t sell it for a profit on the dark web , they will , well , extort it , like in the example above . It wasn ’ t the data that mattered ; it was a business owner willing to pay ransom to get it back that mattered .
So maybe you think your data is not important to anyone . The real question is , how important is your data to YOU ? Do you need it to run your business ? If the answer is yes , then it ’ s vital to a cybercriminal .
Bremen Farmers Mutual Insurance Company
Serving Kansas since 1888
• Homeowners
• Preferred Homeowners
• Dwelling Fire
Curtis Holle • President
Becky Scheele • Claims Mgr .
Bryce Peters • Underwriting Mgr .
AGENCY CYBER GUIDE 3.0
A quick & easy guide to ACT ' s cyber resources .
Handling sensitive information is one of the most critical responsibilities faced by the modern insurance agency .
GET THE GUIDE AT independentagent . com / ACT
• Agri – Pak ( Farmowners )
• Inland Marine
• Business Owners
• Online quoting , application submission , and document view available
201 Brenneke St . | Bremen , KS 66412 T : 800.562.5712 | F : 785.337.2414 www . bfmic . com Email : bremen @ bfmic . com
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