Insurance Insights

Information technology has made it possible for small businesses to connect to customers, employees, and business partners all over the world.  It also enables businesses to expedite the communication and sharing of products, services, and information. However, along with this expediency, usefulness, and convenience, comes exposure to technology risks. And small businesses are particularly vulnerable, since they don’t always have the financial or staffing resources to develop a system of protection that perhaps larger companies do. This is all the more reason to have an information technology risk management for small businesses system in place.

Typical Information Technology Risks

According to the recent CDW Small Business Mobility Report, 94 percent of small business users believe that mobile devices make them more efficient regardless of challenges these devices pose to security and management. However, most of those surveyed remain unfamiliar with mobile device management (MDM) technology that could make the tasks for security and management much easier—especially in light of the BYOD (bring your own device) business culture that prevails today.

Businesses today face giant risks at almost every turn. One place where they aren’t always expecting to face risks, at least not until after disaster strikes the first time, is in the area of digital storage. In fact, many small business owners and managers don’t even realize how vulnerable their data is until after something major happens that makes it painfully clear. These are just four of the major risks businesses face by not investing in a high-quality digital storage solution.

In 2005, the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey, National Computer Security Survey (NCSS) to determine how common and problematic cyber attacks and crimes against US businesses were. One of the shocking discoveries made through this survey was that of the 7,818 businesses involved, nearly 60 percent of them detected one or more different types of cyber attacks used against them. That was the world of doing business via computer and across the World Wide Web nearly a decade ago.

These days, small business owners have many tech-related concerns to take into consideration in the daily operations of their companies, and the issue may be particularly problematic for those whose employees regularly use mobile devices.

Mobile commerce has led to many changes in the way businesses operate, large and small. With so many new possibilities being opened up by mobile commerce, it makes perfect sense that there are also many new risks to contend with as well. If you’re in business today, you need to prepare your business to embrace the good while guarding against the risks mobile commerce represents. These tips will help your business guard against one of the most common risks associated with mobile commerce: breach of customer data.

Identity theft is a pervasive and growing problem nationwide, and as scammers become more enterprising in their attempts to find more victims, a large and growing number are using their same methods on small businesses.

Taking your work on the road today is sometimes risky business. Public Wi-Fi is part blessing, part curse for small businesses today – especially if employees fail to exercise a little caution when selecting Wi-Fi connectivity locations. Now is the time for business of all sizes to create company policies that protect important company secrets as well as the equipment that holds these secrets. These simple tips to keep your small business safe when using public wi-fi will help you avoid some of the not-so-hot spots that could put your business secrets at risk.

In the world of business today, cyber crimes can put a serious crimp on your ability to take care of business. Small businesses often lack full-time IT staff personnel to handle potential cyber crime problems as they arise. More importantly, many small businesses don’t even have an adequately tech-savvy workforce to stay on top of what the latest computer-related cyber threats may be.

Current estimates have merchant losses to check fraud at nearly $10 billion each year. Those numbers are staggering and one of the primary reasons many businesses have stopped accepting checks altogether. However, if you want to continue extending this courtesy to your customers, it’s a good idea to take active steps to identify and prevent check fraud.