Data Breaches are a Question of When, Not If

You hear on the news all of the time about big cyber attacks on large corporations, and evengovernment agencies.The trouble with this news coverage is that is suggests a distorted view ofwhere cyber attacks are taking place. These attacks are not solely hitting large organizations.Small firms represent a significant portion of those who face cyber attacks. Being small by nomeans keeps you immune. In fact, small firms can be used as conduits to larger organizations.That is likely what happened in the case of Target Corporation in 2013

If you’re a small business, then you’re a target for cyber criminals. Last year, 71% of small tomedium size businesses were the victims of Cyber attacks.

Today’s concern is how you would respond to an attack. 31% of small to medium businesses donot have a plan of action for responding to IT security breaches, and 22% admit that they lackthe expertise to make such a plan. A data breach is disastrous.

Your response determines whether it’s a survivable disaster. You need to have a statement forcustomers ready, (47 states require businesses to disclose data breaches), you need to be ableto quickly access backups, and you need access to professionals with experience in disasterrecovery and business continuity.