Don’t Borrow Trouble

We remember a wise man once saying to us, “Never trouble trouble, till trouble troubles you.”

We thought of that during a conversation with a prospect the other day. He asked if we thought adding cybersecurity protection — and buying the cyber liability insurance for which his protection would qualify him — was inviting trouble.

“How so?” we asked.

“Well,” he said, “if hackers know I’ve gone to the trouble of securing my network and my data — and if they know I’ve purchased cyber liability insurance — they’ll think I have something valuable to protect.”

“You do have something valuable to protect,” we said, “your business, your assets, and your working relationships with your customers and partners.”

“Yeah,” he said. “But if I advertise that fact with all these cybersecurity measures and an insurance policy, won’t they think I’ve thrown down the gauntlet?”

“No,” we said. “They’ll think you’ve gotten smart and safe.”

Better Safe …

We also remember the line from Batman, in which Bruce Wayne says to Vicki Vale, “It’s not a perfect world.”

The fact is the world becomes less perfect as it becomes more complex. It also becomes more dangerous for the vulnerable and more advantageous for those who choose to prey on the vulnerable.

According to Statista:

Between November 2020 and October 2021, there were almost 24 thousand cyber security incidents worldwide. from this total, 2,065 incidents were detected in small companies. The professional and public administration sectors were the most targeted with 3,566 and 2,792 reported incidents respectively.

Also according to Statista:

Between November 2020 and October 2021, 5212 organizations worldwide experienced data breaches. Among selected industries, financial firms saw the highest number of data violations. Regarding organization size, smaller ones were victimized by data breaches more than large companies.

The common thread there is smaller companies.

Don’t Settle

If you’re a smaller company, you don’t have to settle for inadequate cybersecurity protection. You don’t have to settle for the exorbitant cyber liability insurance premiums you’ll be charged if you’re not adequately protected. You don’t have to settle for being vulnerable in a world of increasing risk and proliferating cybercrime. And you don’t have to be like the guy in the comic strip at the top of this post.

Be smart. Be safe. Be protected.