Cyber insurance: What you need to qualify for coverage

Cyber insurance: What you need to qualify for coverage

If you’re a small-business owner with limited knowledge of technology, the concept of cyber insurance may seem complex and intimidating. However, understanding cyber insurance and its importance is essential to safeguard your business from the potentially devastating consequences of cyberthreats.

 

What is cyber insurance?

Cyber insurance is a specialized policy that shields businesses from crushing financial losses caused by cyberattacks and data breaches. It’s a safety net in the digital realm. Cyberattacks can target businesses of all sizes, but the impact can be particularly severe for small businesses. In fact, cybercriminals often view small businesses as easy targets due to their valuable data and limited security measures. This makes cyber insurance crucial for small companies, as it helps cover the costs associated with cyber incidents, such as data recovery, legal expenses, and business interruption.

 

However, cyber insurance is not a one-size-fits-all solution. 

 

What type of companies would benefit from cyber insurance?

Different types of companies have varying needs when it comes to cyber insurance coverage. While all businesses can benefit from having some form of cyber insurance, certain industries are particularly at risk.

 

For example, if you’re in the business of handling sensitive customer information such as healthcare and financial data, you’re a prime target for cyberthreats and should have cyber insurance coverage. 

 

Before businesses can acquire cyber insurance, insurance companies typically have specific minimum requirements. These requirements may vary among insurers, but they generally involve evaluating a company’s existing cybersecurity measures. 

 

The minimum requirements to qualify for a cyber insurance policy

Insurers have specific minimum requirements that businesses must meet to qualify for a cyber insurance policy. Here are some key areas insurers may focus on:

 

1. Security protocols

Insurers will inquire about the company’s security protocols and procedures. This includes understanding how the company protects its digital assets, such as its networks, systems, and sensitive data. They may look for evidence of industry-standard security measures, such as the use of firewalls, secure remote access, and intrusion prevention systems. Insurers will also assess the company’s incident response plan and how it handles security breaches.

 

2. Data encryption practices

Insurers may require information about the company’s data encryption practices. Encryption is a crucial security measure that protects sensitive information from unauthorized access. Insurers may ask about the encryption methods used to protect data both at rest (stored on servers or devices) and in transit (being transmitted over networks). They may look for strong encryption protocols, such as 256-bit encryption, and inquire about the extent to which encryption is implemented across different types of data, including customer information, financial records, and intellectual property.

 

3. Employee training programs

Insurers know that employees play a vital role in maintaining a strong security posture. So, they may investigate the company’s employee training programs, specifically if these are relevant to cybersecurity awareness. These programs must include educating employees on potential cyberthreats, best practices for secure online behavior, and how to identify and report suspicious activities such as phishing emails. 

 

Additionally, insurers may look for evidence of regular training sessions, awareness campaigns, or the use of online training platforms to ensure employees are equipped to protect sensitive data and systems.

 

4. Network security infrastructure

Insurers will assess the company’s network security infrastructure to understand the measures in place to protect against unauthorized access and potential cyberattacks. They may look into whether a company implements network segmentation, which involves dividing the network into separate segments to limit access and reduce the impact of a potential breach. They may also look for evidence of regular network monitoring and vulnerability assessments.

 

5. Other requirements

In addition to the above, insurers may have requirements specific to their policies or the industry. These could include regular patch management practices to keep software and systems up to date with the latest security patches, the use of multifactor authentication for access to critical systems, and regular data backups to ensure the ability to recover in case of a ransomware attack or data loss.

 

By demonstrating a strong commitment to cybersecurity, businesses can enhance their chances of obtaining comprehensive and suitable cyber insurance coverage. Want to learn if you can benefit from obtaining a cyber insurance policy? Consult NetWize’s team of IT experts today.

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These are the negative impacts of IT system failures on your business

Many companies in Salt Lake City would not be able to operate as well as they do without IT. It helps in keeping costs low, improves the security, speed, and consistency of various processes, and generally makes life easier for employees.

How can IT system failure affect businesses?

Because of how crucial technology is, the impacts of IT system failure on businesses can be severe and numerous. Here are some of them:

1. Reduced productivity

When IT systems go down, your employees cannot use or access the equipment and resources they need to do their jobs. This causes longer turnaround times and delayed outputs.

Unexpected outages can also hurt your workers’ states of mind. Some may become stressed, while others may have difficulty regaining their focus after the sudden interruption.

2. Loss of important resources

Your business could lose irreplaceable data during an unplanned IT outage. If your servers were to fail, for instance, the information stored on them become inaccessible. These files could be as crucial as customer information, sales records, financial statements, or trade secrets. If these files were never backed up anytime before the outage, then you may lose them forever.

If system failures happen frequently, your business will become less efficient and competitive, making it harder to sell products and services.

Read also: Avoid these 6 critical mistakes during disaster recovery

3. Increased risk of human error

You could lose access to tools that automate crucial processes during an IT system failure. This will force your employees to perform these processes manually.

If your workers are already stressed out by the system interruption, then they are likely to make mistakes. This could be as simple as misspelling words or as severe as mixing up numbers on financial reports. Such errors can result in wasted resources and serious delays.

4. Damaged reputation

Trustworthiness is key to attracting and keeping customers. You want to demonstrate to your clients that you can protect their data and consistently deliver expected results within reasonable deadlines. IT system failures can prevent you from fulfilling these promises, which can lead to a significant blow to your company’s reputation. Disgruntled clients may then take their business elsewhere, and you may have a hard time convincing them to come back.

5. Lost revenue

If system failures happen frequently, then you would eventually lose revenue. Your business will become less efficient and competitive, making it harder to sell products and services. What’s more, outages will cause you to incur additional expenses on repairs and replacements.

What can you do to prevent IT system failures?

IT system failure can happen anytime, but you can take these steps to minimize its negative impacts:

Be proactive about maintenance

Instead of following a break-fix approach to IT management, wherein you act only when something goes wrong, take a proactive approach to maintenance. This means regularly checking your devices and software for vulnerabilities and addressing them before they worsen and cause system failures.

Invest in redundancies

Redundancy means having two or more systems in place to support critical processes. Should one system fail, the others can immediately take over, preventing prolonged interruptions. For example, you could invest in extra servers to back up your main one and buy uninterruptible power supply units to keep your devices running during power outages.

Boost your business’s cybersecurity

Outages can occur because of cyberattacks. Augmenting your cybersecurity posture not only reduces the risk of cyberattacks hitting your business, but doing so can also mitigate an incident’s effects when it does occur.

Implement a disaster recovery plan

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) covers everything you need to do to minimize downtime and data loss during an IT system failure. This typically includes steps like backing up data and allocating resources for quick repairs. A DRP is essential if you want to quickly resume your operations following an outage.

Train your employees

Your employees should know what to do during system failures. They should also be familiar with your DRP and other contingency plans. Training them on these can reduce mistakes and ensure that everyone knows their roles in keeping the business running during outages.

IT system failure can have far-reaching effects on your business, so it’s important to take steps to prevent them or mitigate their effects. On top of following the above tips, you can also partner with [company_short]. Our team of IT specialists will proactively lower your risk of experiencing outages by keeping your systems in top condition. We can also help you design and implement strategies to dampen the effects of system failures. Contact us today for more information about our services.

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5 Most crucial components to include in your data backup strategy

Unless your business is a lemonade stand, your organization relies on data to operate, and losing that data may mean permanently going out of business. This is why more and more businesses in Salt Lake City and across Utah are developing and implementing their own data backup strategies. While these strategies may differ based on the company and their situation, the most effective ones all contain five crucial components.

1. On-site backups

If you’re using on-premises servers and one or more of them turn into high-tech paperweights, then having backups on-site is good practice. You can restore data immediately, or at least at much faster rates than if you used cloud or off-site tape backups most of the time. However, don’t just put all your eggs in one basket, because if an adverse event (such as severe flooding) destroys both your servers and your on-site backups, then you’ll have nothing left. This is why you also need…

2. Off-site backups

In a way, these can be thought of as backups of backups because they’re there in case the on-site backups fail. Off-site backups can be stored in the cloud or in physical media such as tape.

How many on- and off-site backups are implemented in a particular backup strategy will be different from organization to organization. However, the IT industry’s baseline standard is the 3-2-1 backup strategy. It calls for:

  • At least three copies of your data (i.e., the original plus two copies)
  • Backups stored in two different media
  • At least one backup kept off-site

3. Backup schedule and rotation scheme

Not all types of data are created equal. For example, customer account information tends to remain the same, which means that it does not need to be backed up often. On the other hand, GPS coordinates of goods in transit may change in real time, which means that such data needs to be backed up frequently. This is because the data will lose relevance and usefulness the staler it gets.

First in, first out (FIFO) backup rotation scheme

It is standard practice to overwrite stale data to save on backup media such as tapes. Let us say that a tape can hold a day’s worth of backup data. Having ten tapes means having backup data ten days deep. For the eleventh and every subsequent day, the newest data and files are saved on the tape holding the oldest backup. Before being overwritten, old data may be archived.

Grandfather-father-son (GFS) backup rotation scheme

FIFO is efficient, but it is vulnerable to data loss. To illustrate, if a data error is included in your backup for the day, then unless the error is caught beforehand, there is a chance that all subsequent backups will eventually contain the error.

As a safeguard against this potential outcome, you need a rotation scheme that lets you have an old but pristine (i.e., uncompromised) backup. This is what GFS is for. In a GFS scheme, instead of just doing daily FIFO backups, you will also do weekly, monthly, or other FIFO backup cycles. This means that if backups from the shortest cycle are compromised, then you’ll have backups from the longer cycles to fall back on.

4. Backup testing

To ensure the reliability of your backups, they need to be tested regularly. They must be able to restore your data to the point that they allow you to resume critical components of your operations. With that said, the testing does not only check the viability of the backups themselves, but also how quick and effective your IT staff members are in performing data recovery.

Beyond regular testing, you also need to screen your backups for malware infections prior to using them. Using compromised backups is a no-no because doing so may result in further data contamination or loss down the line.

5. Data security controls

Wherever you store your backups, you need to ensure that these remain in pristine condition. This means that backup processes must follow strict protocols. To illustrate, most procedures entail disconnecting servers from the company network and the internet to prevent backups from being tainted with false data or highly infectious malware.

Additionally, you and your third-party backup service provider must utilize security personnel, video surveillance, security checkpoints, and other means of protecting servers and other devices. Furthermore, you need to ensure power availability via uninterruptible power supplies and the like.

Last but not least, if you’re using off-site backups to restore data, you must encrypt it during transit to counter man-in-the-middle attacks.

When it comes to data backup services in Salt Lake City, no one does it better than NetWize. To learn more about our managed backup services request for a free consultation or call us at 801-747-3200 today.

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5 Risks to business continuity you need to be aware of

Approximately 40% of businesses never reopen after a serious disaster. Whether their primary workplace is rendered unusable after a natural catastrophe, or a severe data breach results in an enormous loss of trust with customers, the risks have never been greater. If you’re not prepared for such eventualities, it’s only a matter of time before your business becomes just another statistic. The effects of such disasters can be mitigated by having a solid business continuity plan.

#1. Unplanned outages

Hardware failures and service disruptions can both lead to extended periods of downtime. Now that people have more options than ever before, it doesn’t take a lot for your customers to start looking elsewhere if they can’t, for example, access your website or reach customer support.

That’s why you must identify the business processes and data you can’t live without in the event of an outage. The maximum amount of data you can afford to lose and the maximum amount of time it should take to get a system back up and running are two of the most important parameters to address in your business continuity plan.

#2. Data breaches

Hackers are out in force exploiting system vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to confidential business data, which they’ll then sell on the dark web. Most companies don’t even realize they’ve fallen victim to a data breach until months after it actually happens and the damage has already been done. A proactive approach to information security is essential for identifying, evaluating, and mitigating potential threats before they have a chance to cripple your organization.

#3. Natural disasters

Many businesses still depend heavily on a central base of operations. But if it goes offline due to a natural disaster, the potential losses may result in the company closing its doors for good. This isn’t helped by the fact that it can take months to rebuild, which is more than enough time to lose all your customers.

Fortunately, the worst effects of a natural disaster can be mitigated by migrating your operations to the cloud where your applications, data, and processes will be backed up in multiple off-site locations. That way, your employees will be able to work from secondary premises or even from home if your primary workplace becomes inoperable.

#4. Ransomware attacks

Ransomware attacks might have dropped over the past couple of years, but they remain one of the biggest threats facing businesses of all sizes and industries. While it’s not always easy to avoid ransomware attacks altogether, it’s not nearly as difficult to mitigate their effects as you might think. By having an off-site backup, preferably in a cloud data center, you’ll always have a fallback if ransomware makes it onto one of your office computers and spreads across the network.

#5. Supply chain disruption

Today’s businesses entrust their data and operations to dozens of different companies, which can result in many single points of failure. For example, the massive Target data breach a few years ago resulted from a vulnerability in an HVAC company that the retailer was working with. While your supply chain and other third-party vendors are crucial to the continued operations of your business, it’s essential that you know where your data resides and which controls are in place to protect it. For critical suppliers that your company can’t function without, your continuity plan should always stipulate a second and, preferably, tertiary option to fall back on.

Netwize helps clients leverage modern technology to ensure they’re prepared for any catastrophe. Call us today to get a robust business continuity solution so you can rest easy.

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Why you need a backup and disaster recovery plan

Your company relies on its documents and applications to keep customers happy and to stay in business. Imagine what would happen if you suddenly lost access to all of it. If you’re lucky, your business may be able to come out unscathed, but the reality is many businesses affected by a major disaster close their doors for good.

To mitigate the financial losses caused by unforeseen events, many companies take out cyber insurance policies. However, no insurance policy is going to help you recover from reputational damage or retrieve the critical data you’ve lost. That’s why you also need a documented backup and disaster recovery plan.

#1. Natural disasters

Storms, floods, and fires can all cause irreparable damage to your digital assets by destroying hardware and backup media alike. Unlike many other incidents, a natural disaster might also render your primary workplace inoperable. That’s why backup and disaster recovery planning isn’t just about data; it also needs to incorporate people and processes.

With cloud backups, employees should be able to resume working from home or from a secondary location using their own devices with little-to-no disruption.

#2. Human errors

Many disasters start with human error, whether that’s succumbing to a phishing scam, accidentally deleting an important document, or even failing to turn a computer off properly. Just flipping the wrong switch can lead to a significant loss that could easily have been avoided.

Training programs can help reduce human error and, most importantly, susceptibility to cyberattacks. You can also mitigate employee-induced disasters by tightening access controls and automating your backup routines.

#3. Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks can strike at any time, and small businesses are a favorite target among hackers. Data breaches are especially severe since they can cause serious damage to your reputation, which is one of the most valuable things any business has. Another common threat is ransomware, which can render your data as good as lost.

Every business must take a multilayered approach to protecting its digital assets, and backup and disaster recovery is one of those layers. If data is lost or stolen to a cyberattack, disaster recovery is often your last line of defense.

#4. Hardware failures

Hardware failures can lead to extended periods of downtime. While most hardware can either be fixed or replaced fairly quickly, any accompanying data loss is a lot harder to mitigate if you don’t have a recent backup. Often far worse than losing the value of the hardware is losing the data stored on it.

Businesses can better protect their data by reducing their reliance on hardware. With cloud technology, they can build a software-defined computing architecture that’s kept safe across multiple locations, with redundant systems kicking in whenever the primary fails.

#5. Compliance

Businesses need to comply with a growing number of regulations, many of which include strict availability standards. In other words, if you lose your data to a disaster, you could also end up paying a fine if you haven’t made every reasonable step to protect it. For example, HIPAA gives organizations five days to respond to requests for information, while SOX requires CEOs to report financial results each quarter and year-end. To ensure your data stays available through any eventuality, a robust backup and disaster recovery plan is, indirectly at least, a compliance necessity.

NetWize prepares companies for catastrophe with a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery plan. We’ll help you implement the solutions and even maintain your backups, so you always have access to your most critical assets. Call us today to ensure your business can survive the worst.

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VIDEO – Health Clinic Avoids Costly Downtime Thanks to NetWize and Datto

Advanced Health Clinic is an integrative medicine clinic serving clients all over the world. Their patients rely on various kinds of treatment for their healthcare needs.

Recently, the clinic experienced a power surge causing major damage to their servers. NetWize acted quickly to spin up the VM on their Datto device. Thanks to the quick thinking of our engineers, we were able to help Advanced Health Clinic save time and money by getting them back to normal business operations in no time. Learn more in the video below.

Would you like to learn more about how NetWize helps companies with business continuity? Contact us today at inquiries@netwize.com or by calling 801-747-3200, option 1.

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