While many businesses are aware of the threat of a cyberattack, in a recent survey 64% of small businesses reported not having cyber insurance coverage.
“What does that tell you?” asked Jeremy Barnett, chief marketing officer at Cyberscout. “If they know they have serious risk why are they not protecting themselves from it?”
Find out more: Download the ‘Small Business, Huge Risks’ whitepaper now.
Cyberscout, a global leader in cybersecurity services, recently released the findings of a survey of 2,055 small and medium-sized (SMB) US business owners. The survey sought to understand SMB leaders’ awareness, knowledge and concerns about the top cybersecurity issues facing businesses today.
“We see claims activity heating up because of an increase in automated attacks and a complete lack of awareness of vulnerability,” Barnett said. “Businesses are focused on their day-to-day activities and not aware of the preparation they need to make sure they’re cyber safe.”
This is where the industry needs to come together to support small business, said Barnett.
“We all see the ads on TV right now about ‘buying local’ and supporting small business. This pandemic has brought about a great sense of shared responsibility and perhaps we should apply that same energy into helping small businesses be cyber safe, too.”
As agents and brokers become more aware that cyber is a high-priority issue for their customers, they should work with their insurance markets to get up to speed on what the latest coverages are and the benefits of them, Barnett said. One benefit is the fact that most cyber insurance providers include robust education and training resources with the insurance.
“Because it’s a relatively new insurance product and the small business owners aren’t necessarily familiar with all of the different coverages, the insurers are providing great educational resources for them,” he said. “You’re not just buying insurance — you’re buying cyber support resources as well.”
A new whitepaper, titled ‘Small Business, Huge Risk’ – which is free to download here – delves deeper into the survey results and goes into more detail about how and why small businesses are seeing an uptick in cyberattacks, and what can be done to combat the rising threat.
If there was one thing a small business could do in preparation — other than buy insurance — it would be to put together a cyber incident response plan before something happens, Barnett said. Do they know who to call first? What they should not do to devices that have been infected? They might not be able to avoid an attack, but they should have a plan in place of what to do when they have to confront it.
“It might not be a targeted cyberattack from a global crime syndicate, it could be an employee that accidentally downloads malware and suddenly they can’t process orders or get access to their schedule of appointments,” he said. “When they can’t conduct their business they lose revenue, and the longer that’s the case the harder it is for them to recover.”
To learn more about how to defend your small business from cyberattacks, download CyberScout’s free whitepaper ‘Small Business, Huge Risks.’
