Cyber attacks: coming to a small business near you?
Recently, we explored the macro cost of cyber attacks.
But what about the impact of cyber crime on smaller businesses?
Tales of massive cyber breaches can seem out-of-scope for smaller firms with some point-of-sales equipment, computers and a website compared to the multinational companies who have been in the headlines for cyberattacks.
Nonetheless, companies of all sizes must be aware of cyber breaches. According to the Ponemon Institute LLC, the average cost per record compromised in a data breach is $154. For a company with 100 compromised records, that’s $15,400, a sum that might be a pittance to a big firm but a major problem – or worse – for a smaller firm.
And it’s not as if smaller-scale companies are insulated from cyber attacks. As Property Casualty 360 notes, cyber security firm NetDiligence’s 2015 Cyber Claims Study found that of 160 data-breach insurance claims made by firms between 2012 and 2015, 28 percent were made by firms with less than $50 million in revenue.
“Fundamentally, there are simply more targets—more small organizations than large ones,” NetDiligence president Mark Greisiger told Property Casualty 360. “Also, smaller organizations have been less aware of their exposure and have fewer resources to apply to data protection and security training for employees compared to their larger counterparts.”
While insurance is an important step to mitigate cyber risk, there are other precautions companies need to take to be secure. For more information on how you can protect against cyber liability, consult a Plexus professional at 847.307.6100 (Chicago) or 972-770-5010 (Dallas / Oklahoma City), or contact us via the Web at plexusgroupe.com.
References
“2015 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis.” Ponemon Institute LLC, May 2015.
“2015 Cyber Claims Study.” NetDiligence, September 30, 2015.
Voelker, Michael P.” Cyber: Ready for takeoff. Property Casualty 360, November 2, 2015.
“5 Recent Reports on Business and Cyber Security, Liability and Insurance.” Insurance Journal, November 6, 2015.