Larger companies are investing more money into their cybersecurity defenses as cyber attacks and data breaches become more prevalent, happening to entities ranging from larger companies like Sony to esteemed organizations like NASA. So cyber criminals are turning their focus to smaller and medium sized businesses with fewer cyber defenses.
Sixty-seven percent of small and medium sized businesses reported a cyber attack in 2018 within the last twelve months, up from 55% in 2016. Small businesses accounted for 43% of overall data breaches according to Verizon.
But what are the attackers looking for? This can help you determine if your company is a potential target. Some are looking for financial gain or intellectual property including sensitive data, both of which are present in retirement plans with assets that store participant data. Attackers are even looking to breach brand new companies; they will have little experience at that stage and likely are worrying about issues aside from cybersecurity. So even brand new companies have to be on their toes.
Small and medium sized companies can protect themselves from cyber attackers with cyber liability insurance
Colonial Surety includes cyber liability insurance with our ERISA fidelity bond packages with fiduciary liability insurance to best protect your company plan against a cyber attack.
Colonial’s cyber insurance provides a services-based solution to help plan sponsors manage data breaches successfully. These services include a dedicated team of cyber breach professionals who assist plan sponsors at every stage of incident investigation and breach response. These professionals coordinate the carefully vetted forensics experts and specialized lawyers to help plan sponsors establish what’s been compromised; assess plan sponsor responsibility; and, notify those individuals affected. In addition, these services will also coordinate credit or identity monitoring, and PR advice to help the plan sponsor safeguard its reputation. Of course, Colonial’s cyber insurance also indemnifies and defends plan sponsors from covered lawsuits or regulatory actions, the risk of which may be reduced by a well-coordinated breach response, but can never be completely eliminated.
Ongoing governance and evaluation of recordkeepers can help protect data, but the only way to fully protect against a potential cyber attack’s data breach is to purchase cyber liability insurance from Colonial Surety Company.