By Jim Lombardo, CPCU, AAI, AIM, MBA, AVP of Learning & Development
It seems like every day there is another notice about a security breach. We’ve all most likely heard about the biggest ones- Yahoo (3+ billion accounts affected); Marriott (383 million accounts affected) Equifax; Home Depot; Target… the list goes on and on.
However, there are so many “smaller” breaches we may not hear about- firms like Blur (a password manager with 2.4 million accounts); Town of Salem Video game; discountmugs.com; benefit mall; Blackrock Inc.; Huddle House; Rubrik and too many others to list here- but I think you get my point.
What if something happened to your business? How many people would be affected? You have personal information about your clients- social security numbers, dates of birth, drivers license number, addresses and probably banking information if they pay by EFT. Would you be able to fully recover from the loss of reputation? loss of business? loss of referrals? Loss of income? And what about the cost of recovery? How much time, money and people will need to be involved to help you “get back to normal”? After all we are risk managers and what is more important than managing this type of risk for your business?
Now let me ask the same questions with a bit of a twist. How many of you have small to medium size businesses as clients? Are you having these conversations with them? Are you asking them to think about what would happen to their business if they sustained a security breach? More importantly, are you setting yourself up for an E+O claim for NOT having these conversations with your clients? What if they did indeed suffer a breach and were not covered because you didn’t recommend this type of insurance protection?
Here are some related upcoming classes/webinars that I feel are very much worth your time.
Cyber Coverage – Data Breach and So Much More
An E&O Course for the Everyday Agent
ABEN Cyber Exposures and Ins Training for Agents and Brokers
ABEN Little This a Little That: New Threats & Possibilities