The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have changed the restaurant industry. More people than ever are ordering takeout or delivery from their favorite restaurants. For convenience, these customers are often disclosing personal information like their home address, email address, and credit card number. If you’re a restaurant that receives and stores peoples’ information, you need a way to keep it safe. Cyber insurance is one measure you can take to avoid costly data breaches, phishing, and ransomware attacks.
Why a Data Breach is So Harmful
When customers enter their personal information in your app or website, they are trusting you with that information. A data breach is the last thing you’d want to happen. If a hacker gains access to your files, they can do whatever they want with them. If that were to happen to your company, you’d be required to contact every customer whose data was stolen and tell them that their information has been compromised.
Such an event could be catastrophic. In fact, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance, 60% of small to medium-sized businesses that suffer a data breach are out of business within six months. Cyber insurance can help mitigate some of the risks of cyber attacks.
Why Your Restaurant Needs Cyber Insurance
According to an infographic on ModernRestaurantManagement.com, “66% of small to midsize businesses fell victim to at least one cyber attack.” We’ve already covered what can happen if your restaurant were to be struck by a cyber attack. What about cyber security measures? Do those help? They can, but they’re not foolproof. In fact, according to the same infographic cited above, 45% of small to medium-sized businesses stated that their cyber security is ineffective. Cyber insurance can help fill in the gaps.
What’s Covered under Cyber Insurance?
Many cyber insurance companies will perform a cyber security audit on your company to better understand its needs. From there, the cyber insurance company will require other figures like revenue and who can access various data streams. Not every cyber insurance policy is the same and the field is changing every day. Even so, most cyber insurance will cover:
- Liabilities from data breaches
- Lost profits
- Lawsuits
- Costs of notifying customers about any data breaches
- Public relations expenses
- Physical loss of paper records
- Hiring computer forensics experts to retrieve lost data
- Replacing damaged or destroyed computer systems
- Extortion and monetary demands from a ransomware attack
If you don’t have cyber insurance, you’ll be forced to cover the quickly mounting costs of a data breach on your own. This could range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars from exorbitant ransomware demands. It’s better to be safe than sorry – consider cyber insurance for your business so you can protect your company if a data breach occurs.
