When there’s bad news and good news, it’s better to get the bad news first. The bad news: COVID-19 has likely slowed down physical traffic into your business. The good news: Hopefully, this also means the digital traffic to your business has increased. Ideally, you’re receiving leads, getting more and more website visitors, and perhaps even taking payment online for services or products. According to Forbes.com, retailers selling non-essentials have seen double and triple-digit increases in online sales during the COVID-19 crisis. All these sales and traffic are a great thing until there’s a data breach. Is your business ready for this potential risk?
Your business has likely already suffered enough due to COVID-19 restrictions. A potential data breach can possibly be the event that could sink your financial ship, but SOGO is here to back you up. Cyber liability insurance is a specialized policy that protects your business from the unfortunate expenses of a data breach, including:
- Client Notification – In Texas specifically, House Bill 4390 amends the Texas Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act by requiring that Texas residents be notified of a data security breach within sixty (60) days of the determination that a breach has occurred. Sixty days may sound like a good amount of time, but in the business world, this is no time at all. Most likely, you would consider hiring a public relations consultant to help craft a specialized message to your clients regarding the breach, as clients take this information as a serious blow in your client/business relationship. This type of consultant can costs thousands of dollars, even for a simple press release. The software you use to distribute this message will also likely cost you thousands of dollars to maintain.
- Website Scrubbing – This is where you’re really likely in panic mode. In a world where social media and public reviewing sites are so prevalent, you really need to be ready to get your website in perfect, working order, so that your clients don’t take to the public forum sites to exact their revenge or share their not-so-nice opinion about any poor handling of the data breach. Calling your web maintenance folks to work on your site ASAP will not be an inexpensive endeavor, especially if they charge you for expedited service.
- Dealing with Extortion Attempts – We’ve all received a phone call or email from an extortionist at some point, which leaves you wondering how they obtained your personal information in the first place. A data breach can trigger these types of extortion attempts for your clients, and you’re forced to play “sit-and-wait” for the threats to start rolling in. If your stomach wasn’t in knots before, it would be now. The only thing worse than your site having a data breach is knowing your clients are suffering.
- Paying Damages – Customers and suppliers who lose out because of your breach will 1) lose trust in your organization but can also 2) sue your company for losses, which means you’ll be reaching into your business wallet for coverage.
After all these potential expenses, your balance could be running close to zero, all because of a data breach. With more and more traffic coming to your site, it’s imperative that you consider cyber liability insurance for your business. We hope the increased traffic helps alleviate some of the decreased foot traffic your business may have had, and we’re here to protect you and your assets in whatever form.
In case you missed it: “Preparing to Re-Open Your Texas Business” has a perfectly-timed and convenient checklist for you to run through so that your business is up and running to perfection while taking COVID-19 restrictions into consideration. In the meantime, we’re here for you and look forward to speaking with you about how we can help protect your biggest assets. Contact us today to chat about your options.
