The internet has never been more dangerous, especially for those with plenty to lose. Most businesses fall into this group, and digital criminals are not shy about attacking them online.
A single exploit or successful phishing attempt can cost a business millions, and many already have. With there being plenty of other types of digital dangers to worry about, the internet can seem like a truly hostile place. Doing everything possible to stay safe in the face of such threats will always be important.
There are also ways of minimizing the cost of a successful intrusion or another sort of problem, however, as more business owners are discovering. Companies like Haberman Insurance can arrange for coverage that activates when cyber attacks or other technology-impacting problems arise.
Judging whether cyber insurance will make sense for your business can seem complicated, but there are some rules of thumb that can help. Keep the following four dos and don’ts in mind and the right choice should become clear.
1. Do Take Stock of Your Digital Assets
As with most other types of coverage, the best way to start thinking about the value and applicability of cyber insurance is to identify the stakes and risks at hand. Taking an inventory of both physical and virtual digital assets will be a good way to get the ball rolling.
That means listing everything from servers, workstations, and routers to contact databases, proprietary digital documents, and financial records kept in virtual form. Once such a list has been developed, catalog all the ways these valuable assets can be threatened, whether by determined criminals or the impersonal vicissitudes of Mother Nature.
2. Don’t Assume Security and Safeguards Will be Enough
It will always be best to strive to keep your digital assets safe from both physical and virtual threats. At the same time, effort put into shoring up such defenses can lead to a dangerous sort of complacency.
Risk management experts know that problems can never be ruled out entirely, only made less likely to occur. No matter how much attention you devote to guarding against cyber criminals or natural disasters, you need to account for the possibility that your efforts will prove ineffective.
3. Do Ask What Would Happen in the Event of an Attack or Disaster
Every potential threat to your digital assets will imply a range of possible sorts of damage. The breach of a vulnerable server accessible from the public internet could lead to anything from a bit of inconvenient downtime to the theft of invaluable trade secrets.
Likewise will various types of natural disasters and other physical dangers have associated possibilities of their own. A minor fire could destroy a relatively important workstation, while a major one might consume computers hosting production databases and backups, as well.
4. Don’t Forget About Intangibles That Could be Affected, Too
While it will away be important to put price tags on all of your digital assets, you will also need to think about how less-concrete things like your company’s image might be affected. If your business struggles to serve customers effectively after an attack by digital criminals or a server-destroying fire, that will hurt its reputation.
Experts are Ready to Help
Keeping these four dos and don’ts in mind should make it easier to determine whether cyber insurance will benefit your business. Given how heavily many companies today rely on computers and the internet, opting for this type of coverage often proves to be the best choice.
