When you're applying for a loan, a job or housing, your reputation follows you. A paper trail including the details of your credit, education and work experience tells the loan officer, interviewer or leasing agent what kind of a person you are. Do you pay your bills on time? Do you hold a degree? Are you currently employed? The answers to these questions provide a framework of your character.
The expression, "your reputation precedes you", is none truer than when you're the head of your small business. Consumers are wary of taking their business to a new company, and if your small business suffers a cyber attack, you can bet customer loyalty will wane quickly. To combat the cyber attack epidemic, be sure to get cyber liability coverage, you won't regret it.
We the People
Think for a moment of the people and companies you've most admired. Have any of them come under fire for bad behavior or lack of judgment? If so, did you lose your respect for them? Did you take your business elsewhere? There comes a time in every person's life when our heroes are made human. It's tough when we see the man behind the curtain, but it's also inevitable. It's the same for businesses. Any sort of mishandling reaps customer criticism, and sometimes even attacks on your business's practices and social dealings.
If your small business experiences a data breach, what is it going to cost you and your reputation? Will your business rise like a phoenix from the ashes, or will a cyber attack be the final nail in the coffin?
Guilty by Association
The security news and research group, CSO, argues that a data breach is both a financial and personal relations calamity. Hackers that have laid waste to small businesses pronounce that if these businesses had really had their customer's best interests at heart, their servers would not have been so easily corruptible. This sways the emotional state of the customer, and they will quickly believe that your small business did not care about them, but only cared about taking their money.
CSO continues that businesses are often too slow in their response to a data breach, causing an even bigger rift in the business-customer relationship. And if a customer should lose money or become targets themselves, they may come after your business. This is where cyber liability comes into play. Cyber insurance protects you, your employees and your customers in the event of a cyber attack.
We know that 72 percent of cyber attacks happened to companies with less than 100 employees. So what can you do to assure your customers that you have them covered? Detail your cyber security insurance plan. It's important to be transparent about the attack. Let your customers know what is happening, and how you are controlling the situation.
Remind them that your cyber security team (your insurance) is covering the financial losses and repairing the chinks in the system, making your cyber security even tougher. Let them know you are sorry for the security breach, and that you are willing to do everything in your power to prevent it from happening again.
People appreciate transparency and value integrity. If you've handled your small business dealings in this way, your customers are going to stick by you. When you get cyber liability coverage through CyberPolicy, you know that your business is covered. Start looking at cyber coverage packages today.
