In an article entitled, “Why Cybersecurity Should be the Biggest Concern of 2017,” published in Forbes in January of 2017, Cesar Cerrudo wrote that “by 2020 there will be 200 billion connected things. As technology becomes more deeply integrated into our lives, we become increasingly dependent on it.
Cerrudo writes that, “ Most technology is vulnerable and can be hacked…Cars have been hacked, a popular U.S. smart home alarm system was hacked, implantable medical devices like pacemakers have been hacked, plane systems, critical infrastructure like a power grid and a dam were hacked, mobile banking apps, smart city technology has been hacked” and the list goes on.
Cyber crime effects businesses of all sizes and types and the threat of data breach is constantly evolving. Therefore, now more than ever, it is important that companies take measures to protect themselves from costly data breaches.
A real-life example of how valuable Cyber protection can be is a McSweeney & Ricci business client, a silk screening t-shirt company, fell victim to a hacker and their computers were frozen, compromising their network. Thankfully, the business had invested in a data breach policy and the ransom wear portion of their policy covered the extortion and paid $25,000 to get their computers back online. Had they not secured a data breach policy the outcome may have been far worse.
Contact your McSweeney & Ricci Commercial Lines Account Manager to add cyber protection to your business insurance program, or to learn more about protecting your business from a costly data breach.