Risk & Business Magazine Hardenbergh Insurance Group Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 8
PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS
BY: ANDREW BONIFANTE,
HARDENBERGH
INSURANCE
W
Protect Your Business
Before It’s Too Late
hen it comes to cyber
insurance, I have
found there are a lot
of misconceptions
out there. Having
worked to provide this type of coverage
to so many small- and medium-sized
businesses, I would like to correct some
of these misconceptions to help you
realize how serious a problem a cyber-
attack can be. Please take a look at the
list below and feel free to get in touch
with me at [email protected] if
I can help answer any questions:
1) I AM TOO SMALL TO BE HACKED.
The idea that hackers are more
interested in the Targets and Home
Depots of the world than they are in you
is flat out wrong. Last year, 70 percent
of hacks were targeted toward small-
and mid-sized businesses with fewer
than one thousand employees. Smaller
businesses are generally less informed
about hacking and are less likely to
have safeguards and controls in place to
protect themselves.
2) THE CLOUD IS MY SAFETY NET.
Believe it or not, the Cloud is no safe
8
haven. The Cloud is a network just like
the hardwired network in your office
and is just as vulnerable to cyber-attack.
In fact, in 2016, over eighty-five million
records stored on the Cloud were hacked
in the United States.
3) MY CREDIT VENDOR HAS CYBER
INSURANCE, SO I DON’T NEED IT.
This may be true, but there’s a big “but.”
It’s great if your third-party credit
vendor has the insurance to cover you,
but this type of payout takes time—and
you will not have that luxury. You will
need funds immediately to defend your
case and make remunerations. And if
the vendor truly is at fault, there is no
guarantee that the limits of the vendor’s
policy will be sufficient to compensate
for your entire loss.
4) I CAN HANDLE IT ON MY OWN.
As an entrepreneur, you are accustomed
to handling everything that comes your
way. But a cyber-attack is different
because it has legal ramifications, which
can vary by state. For example, you only
have a certain time frame within which
you must notify clients of the cyber-
attack and offer mitigation.
A cyber-attack approach that has gained
popularity recently is “ransomware.”
This is when hackers hijack your
software and you essentially become
locked out of your own network. To
regain control and keep your business
on track, you must pay a ransom to the
hackers. Over 90 percent of businesses,
desperate to keep their doors open, end
up paying whatever’s demanded of them.
All told, the cost to remedy a hack
generally amounts to about $225 per
record. Of course, most companies
have many hundreds or thousands of
records, so the costs can add up pretty
quickly. Some businesses, such as a
medical office housing confidential
patient health information, require
heightened coverage to adequately
protect themselves. A retail store, on the
other hand, which only keeps credit card
information on file for perhaps one day,
may be alright with a more standardized
policy. Check with your insurance agent
to design the right type of coverage for
your business. +