Remember when you installed a security alarm system, maybe a few cameras, and possibly a security guard to safeguard your business against criminal activity? Some companies even went as far as to make body searches on their employees a regular condition of their employment contracts.
That’s when we understood the type of crime that could affect our businesses and knew what to do to prevent it. But, now there’s a whole new world of crime that takes place in a world that you might not understand all that well: Online. One of the most effective ways to protect your business against the damage of cybercrime is to take out cyber insurance, so that if something happens you can pick up the pieces and continue building your empire.
Here are 3 reasons why your business needs to protect itself from cybercrime, whether you’re in the game of selling wood, creating online greeting cards, or taking orders for a grocery store.
1. Cybercrime can affect any business.
Cybercrime is a reality now that we’re in the digital age, no matter what type of business you’re in. Unfortunately, many business owners assume that they aren’t at risk if their business is small-to-medium in size or don’t sell anything to do with tech, and therefore don’t think that they need to invest in cyber insurance.
The most common types of business-related cybercrime:
- Ransomware: Malicious software which kidnaps your business’ data by blocking access to your computer system until you’ve paid the criminals.
- Piracy: It’s not just music and movies, but also your business’ data which could be copied and distributed.
- Advance fee fraud: You receive an email with news of a financial windfall or issue that you need to provide details for and even make payments so that you can sort it out.
- Transaction fraud: Scammers sell items which may be relevant to your business through sites like an auction and then don’t deliver the goods when payment is made.
- Hacking: Illegally evading security to access your business computer systems to steal sensitive data, control your systems, or cause chaos.
2. Your business might not survive a cyberattack.
Cyberattacks can cost your business in different ways, any combination of which could cripple your survival and ability to become successful.
There are direct costs that are obvious and detrimental, like the loss of capital and assets, the money that you might have to pay to fix the issue, and possible sky-high costs from legal difficulties if you’ve had a security breach. There are also indirect costs which can have an even more disastrous effect on your business’ solvency.
The most common indirect costs from a cyberattack:
- Damage to your business reputation, loss of confidence, and broken trust which causes a loss of business.
- Business interruption, which leads to costs as you deal with this downtime.
- Damage to your share price.
- Hidden costs of dealing with the incident, such as the cost of notifying your clients, the cost of investigating the incident, and the cost of helping your clients not have their lives or businesses impacted by the attack. Visit thebitcoinscode.com to get additional guidance.
3. Your employees use computers to do their jobs.
If you use any Internet-connected devices to do your work, then your business is at risk. Where there’s a connection, there’s a way to attack your business and steal or destroy what you’ve built.
This is especially true if your business uses cloud services, which are a great tool for file sharing and collaboration. But think about this: Approximately 1% of files uploaded to the cloud contain sensitive data, 44.4% of this data includes confidential info, and around 2.7% of shared files are publicly accessible.
Cyber insurance is an effective part of your plan to mitigate your risk, especially if you use technology to use, store or disclose personal info about your customers, which makes you more of a target to hackers. Without proper measures and cyber insurance, your business is exposed to security breaches and you might not recover.
So, what’s the answer?
Cyber insurance is available in South Africa and can save your business from going under.
Every company that’s using technology and the Internet needs cyber insurance as part of an effective risk management plan. This type of insurance is designed to cover your business’ computer systems, software and data, data breach expenses, liability, associated loss of income, and more.
How do you get cyber insurance?
This is a relatively new insurance product on the market, but there are top insurers who offer it, like King Price. King Price offers cybersure, a truly innovative product that you can take out to insure your business against liability arising from cyberattacks, as well as cover for your business’ computer systems, software, and data.
If you’re interested in finding out more about cybersure and getting a quote, then please visit kingprice.co.za or pop an email to [email protected]
