There are millions of small businesses across the country that likely don’t have the proper safety protocols in place to protect themselves from the myriad threats data breaches can pose, and as a result, many may need to review their standards and make sure they have the necessary tech insurance in place to ensure their financial safety against these issues.
There are as many as 7.9 million small businesses with fewer than 100 employees operating nationwide and these may be at particular risk for massive data breach incidents that can cost millions to remediate and consequently be damaging if not fatal for the companies, according to a report from TechTarget. This is often because as a consequence of small business owners focusing on growing the reach of their enterprises when they are first getting started, they may not have the ability or the resources available to devote to properly protecting all the information they may keep on devices of all sorts.
One new study shows that nearly nine in 10 small and medium-sized businesses are concerned that their mobile devices in particular might not be safe from the threats data breaches can pose, but many also typically don’t put the proper measures in place to prevent these problems, the report said. That can include installing anti-virus or spyware and malware protection software on devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets, but should also involve taking the time to explain to employees the best ways to avoid accidental exposure. For instance, many may put themselves and sensitive company or customer data at risk by connecting to unsecured public WiFi networks, or as a result of falling for phishing scams or attack sites that can expose information through an honest mistake.
Another big problem is that small businesses are often targeted for this type of incident specifically because of their often minimal security protections, the report said.
“Most of them don’t believe they’re being targeted,” Charles Kolodgy, research vice president of security products at the Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, told the site. “The attackers aren’t always after multimillion-dollar paychecks. They’re after whatever they can get. Small business is kind of an easy mark.”
For these reasons, investing in tech insurance policies is usually vital for protecting small businesses from the typically massive costs that come with dealing with the fallout from such an incident.
