Murphy's Law states, \Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.\" While this may seem pessimistic or even alarmist to some, others see it as a call to action. If you prepare for the worst, you'll never be taken by surprise.

That's the thinking behind cyber insurance. Businesses that invest in a cyber insurance policy are protected from the financial ruin brought on by hackers and data breaches.

This is good news when you consider how prevalent these threats really are. According to Inc., roughly half of all cyberattacks specifically target small and medium businesses (SMBs). Since these organizations have shallower pockets than their supermassive peers, some SMBs can suffer bankruptcy from a single cyberattack. That's because a cyberattack can have devastating fallout.

Here's just one example:

Let's say an employee in your accounting department opens an email attachment infected with malware. It lurks in your network for about a week. It's not sleeping though; it's spreading! Before you know it, an especially vicious form of ransomware has locked each and every computer in your network. Unless you pay thousands of dollars for their release, you will suffer excessive business downtime – costing your company thousands of dollars anyway.

You refuse to pay the ransom and instead hire an external security agency to expunge the malware from your system. But this isn't the end of it. The security team discovers the ransomware was a red herring. The true objective of these hackers was to breach your customer data. Now you are saddled with the responsibility of informing customers their personal or financial information may have been compromised.

Flash forward a year, and you are facing a class-action lawsuit for spilling customer information. It's a huge expense, and you are wondering if your small business can survive the reputational damage – not to mention the presumptive payout for the lawsuit and legal fees.

Of course, that's a worst-case scenario. But, what could this business have done differently? How could they have prepared for the worst and avoided this terrible fate?

Well, the first thing the organization could have done is trained their employees to watch out for common email scams. Research shows the majority of data breaches are caused by employee negligence. Preparing your workers for this eventuality will drastically improve your chances of avoiding a cyberattack.

Depending on your budget, it might behoove you to hire an outside cybersecurity firm to routinely inspect your network for signs of incursion. It's not exactly cheap, but it could help you nip a security breach in the bud.

Finally, investing in a cyber insurance policy through a reputable provider can help you overcome the financial challenges associated with security incidents. Cyber insurance covers the costs of cyber extortion, data breach, credit monitoring, legal fees, and more – depending on your policy.

The best part is cyber insurance is affordable, even for SMBs! Visit CyberPolicy to compare quotes and sign up for a plan today.