Data Breaches Can Happen To Any Company — It Might Have Already Happened To Yours

Cyber security is all over the news, with data breaches to Target and Home Depot stealing millions of people’s financial and personal identification information. You may think just because you are not a giant retailer, your business won’t get hacked. According to Dave Dewalt, CEO of FireEye, 97 percent of all companies are being breached. From the moment a data breach occurs, it takes an average of 229 days before a company realizes it has been hacked.

If you collect any customer information, like medical records, or credit card payments or even maintain a customer email list, you could be liable for cyber security costs that can damage future business. In fact, according to the House Committee on Small Business, 60 percent of small businesses that suffer a cyber security data breach will go out of business within six months.*

Some of the immediate costs your company would incur when a data breach happens include:

• Forensics– To discover the source of the breach and correct the problem
• Public Relations – To provide damage control when your company’s reputation comes under attack in the news and on social media
• Monitoring – Paying to monitor credit reports and personal information for all parties whose information was compromised
• Notification Costs – You must notify all individuals whose information was stolen, a cost that can add up quickly

In addition, there would be insurance claims costs – third-party costs, whoever wants to sue you. You still need to pay attorney’s and pay settlements

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_{*“Protecting Small Businesses Against Emerging and Complex Cyber-Attacks,” House Committee on Small Business, March 21, 2013.}