Cyberattacks are on the rise, and bad actors are finding new, creative ways to steal as much data as possible. According to Aon, there was a 68% increase in the overall number of compromised records from 2020 to 2021. While customers and employees certainly suffer in the aftermath of a data breach, business owners also face a multitude of liability considerations.

There are several ways businesses can incur costs in the wake of an attack, including:

• Liability: Businesses will be held accountable for the financial cost of these attacks, which could include the loss of personal information or sensitive data.
• System recovery: Some attacks are so severe that entire networks are shut down, which could force a business to close temporarily. This leads to a loss of income while the situation is sorted and networks are repaired.
• Notification expenses: By law, companies must inform their customers if a data breach occurs. The more people impacted by an attack, the more this correspondence will cost a business.
• Regulatory fines: Failure to protect the data of customers can result in fines and penalties.
• Class actions: Class action lawsuits are often filed by customers impacted by a data breach. These cases could potentially lead to a big financial payout from the company.

In the slideshow above, we’ll look at five basic facts agents should discuss with their business clients to help protect against cyberattacks from Tivly.