5 Reasons Why You Would Want to Be a Victim of a Hack | Free Antivirus Software

The big companies of this world have almost all been there: Netflix, Yahoo, Sony, Canadian Tire, McDonald's and many more. Sometimes it seems like people have become so used to it that they no longer care. After all, these companies seem far removed from the reality of most other smaller companies. In addition, their income is so astronomical that they seem able to recover from this kind of attack while continuing their activities as if nothing had happened. It can be easy to forget those large companies were the victims of a hack a few months ago. Although it may still be difficult to forget for companies like Target, a victim of the theft of personal information and credit card numbers in 2013. Target is still paying the price today, with fees that rise today to over $ 300 million USD (thanks to their cyber risk insurance policy which covered the first 100 million!).

What we tend to forget is that being hacked is unfortunately not a drama exclusive to the giants of this world.

The vast majority of cyber attacks target small and medium-sized businesses. Although journalists rarely take an interest in it, the consequences of hacking are much more disastrous for SMBs, and sometimes the attacked companies never recover.

If you're the head of a small business, preparing for a cyberattack has never been more important because a hack could be fatal for your business.

UNLESS  you belong to one of the five categories of companies below.

 

In this case, you would surely be happy to be hacked; it will even make your life easier!

By the way, please call me if you recognize yourself at number 3, I absolutely want to know your secret!

So here are 5 reasons why you would want to be a victim of a hack.

1. Because you have too many customers

Do you have too many clients? You don't know what to do with it and you don't feel like delegating to others? It would do well for you to waste a few to have more time to devote to finally playing that Pokemon Go that everyone was talking about last year!

Did you know that the most important consequence for businesses after data theft is the loss of customers? A survey conducted in the United States by the firm KPMG reports that 33% of consumers are likely to avoid frequenting a business for at least three months if that business suffers a security breach. If Walmart can ever afford to lose customers, the impact could be much more disastrous for you; but anyway, that's what you were looking for, right?

2. Because you want to pay it forward

Do you have a philanthropic soul? So, why not pay it forward by paying some ransoms so as to finance organized crime? The company's credit card is just begging to be used after all! You might have the honour of being one of the people in 2017 who will typically pay between $ 500 and $ 5,000 on a computer ransom note.

Indeed, one of the most common hacks in recent months is the ransomware technique (also known as ransomware). In 2016, the ransomware reportedly earned more than $ 1 billion in revenue (paid ransoms) for hackers and organized crime. The most common way to do this is to send an email with a malicious attachment. Once the attachment is launched on your computer, server or smartphone, a program encrypts the files and blocks all access to your important systems and documents. The malware then demands the payment of a sum of money in exchange for the encryption key that will give you access to your documents.

So the next time you find a questionable email attachment, don't hesitate to do your part and pay it forward!

3. Because you made too much money last year

Was the past year the best financial year for your business? Yes? Surely this was achieved through hard work. With tax season, your business may have to pay excessively large amounts of tax to Revenu Québec.

By having a security incident, it could help you ease the tax burden for the next financial year of the business! After you have lost a number of your customers and paid a few ransoms, the losses incurred will then eat into your profit margin.

Another new trick could also be to put less effort into monitoring your IT equipment so that your next security breach is detected too late. Why could this help you reduce your tax burden? Because the Ponemon Institute demonstrated in its latest report that the longer organizations take to detect a hack, the more expensive it will be to manage.

4. Because you have a cyber risk insurance policy

As explained in our last article, some insurance brokers, like Martel & Martel, have started offering cyber risk insurance coverages to their clients. This type of coverage is there to protect you from the consequences of certain computer attacks, such as the costs of incident management during the loss or theft of confidential information or for operating losses during a computer attack. denial of service that prevents your customers from accessing your brand new transactional website.

If you have such an insurance policy, it might be tempting to test whether your insurance policy is really effective! Who hasn't set their house on fire or caused water damage just to test their insurance policy?

Of course, it will always be important to know the inclusions and exclusions of your insurance coverage in order to avoid unpleasant surprises! Only one downside; if an insurer were to discover that you were negligent when it came to cybersecurity, you might not be covered ...

In the event that you were also motivated by reasons number 3 and 5, then it is possible that having problems with your insurer will not bother you!

5. Because you want to give your lawyer a job

Do you find that your lawyer is of little use? That turns out well! Sometimes, following a hack, the company's customers use it in a class-action lawsuit. This would keep your lawyer busy for many years. In addition, following the amendment of the Digital Personal Information Protection Act, it will soon be mandatory to report security incidents that have the potential to cause serious harm to individuals. Great work ahead for your lawyer, as well as your communications department!

In conclusion

If you do not recognize yourself in any of these reasons, then, it is better not to risk being hacked…!

A cyber attack could cause significant damage to your business in terms of your image, your finances and your legal posture.

Do not panic! CyberSwat is here to help you not only reduce the risk of being a victim of a computer hack but in addition to better recover if you have been attacked thanks to our disaster response service. For more information, 

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