Business owners have many decisions to make. Among the most important to the business’ well-being and success is the decision to purchase commercial insurance. This type of insurance policy protects the business from essential property damage, liability, and workers compensation. Each business tailors an insurance policy to its requirements. For example, a business owner’s policy (BOP) includes most of the required insurance needed by a business owner, including property, vehicle, liability, business interruption, and crime insurance. In general, bundling insurance can help to save the business in premium costs.
Data Security
Directly after securing the right business insurance, selecting the right credit card processing service and merchant accounts are vital to the company’s revenues and sustainability. According to authors Claudia Gilbertson and Mark W. Lehman, (“Century 21 Accounting,” 2012) efficient credit card processing is critical to the company’s balance sheet in today’s world of instant electronic payments. Data security insurance is an essential type of business insurance for any company collecting financial or credit card information about its customers.
The authors of “Hackers and Hacking: A Reference Handbook,” (2013) say that most states in the U.S. have data breach notification laws. The laws compel companies to report any breach of sensitive health and financial information collected by companies, health organizations, medical providers, and the like to state law enforcement.
Unfortunately, data breach reports continue to grow in size and media attention in 2014.
Data Breach Insurance
A business that stores sensitive personal or financial information on computers, paper files, or servers is responsible for the protection of that information. In today’s instant payments world, where credit card or bank account information (accessed by check at the cash register), companies must do a better job of protecting sensitive information. When a data breach happens electronically or via paper file, a data breach business insurance policy can help to protect against the business’ losses.
The FBI recently reported that cyber-attacks, such as the one reported by Target Corp. over the 2013 holidays, are likely to cause more data breach concerns for U.S. businesses. Approximately 20 cases of hacking (using a similar kind of malicious program–also known as malware) were reported last year. The FBI reported that companies using “point-of-sale” (POS) cash registers or credit-card swipe machines at checkout are likely to face continued risks from “memory-parsing” software. According to the FBI, “POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms’ actions.”
Because malware can interrupt a business’ sales and consumer confidence, it is now more important than ever to own data breach insurance. In addition, the selection of the best credit card processing and merchant accounts partner is key to protecting sensitive customer financial information.