Cyber for Plan Sponsors

Cyber Attack “Kill Chain” has Shortened

06.20.2019

Even as cyber attacks become more sophisticated, hackers’ cyber kill chain, or the number of steps it takes to complete a cyber attack, has greatly shortened. Whether they have been able to become more efficient or users have made themselves easier to attack is unclear, but either way, there are now fewer places to stop cybercriminals before your data is stolen.

Usually, cyber attacks begin with phishing, hacking, or social engineering; malware is generally not seen until later on in the advancement of a cyber attack. Attacks begin with hackers finding some way to gain your credentials illicitly and that is how the attack starts. Computer viruses help advance the attack later in the process.

Using two-factor authentication and secure passwords can help protect you from the social engineering and phishing portions of the cyber attack, but even those are able to be broken. The best way to protect a small business is to obtain cyber liability insurance.

Small businesses can protect themselves from cyber attackers with cyber liability insurance

Colonial Surety includes cyber liability insurance with our ERISA fidelity bond packages with fiduciary liability insurance to best protect your company plan against a cyber attack.

Colonial’s cyber insurance provides a services-based solution to help plan sponsors manage data breaches successfully. These services include a dedicated team of cyber breach professionals who assist plan sponsors at every stage of incident investigation and breach response. These professionals coordinate the carefully vetted forensics experts and specialized lawyers to help plan sponsors establish what’s been compromised; assess plan sponsor responsibility; and, notify those individuals affected. In addition, these services will also coordinate credit or identity monitoring, and PR advice to help the plan sponsor safeguard its reputation. Of course, Colonial’s cyber insurance also indemnifies and defends plan sponsors from covered lawsuits or regulatory actions, the risk of which may be reduced by a well-coordinated breach response, but can never be completely eliminated.

Ongoing governance and evaluation of recordkeepers can help protect data, but the only way to fully protect against a potential cyber attack’s data breach is to purchase cyber liability insurance from Colonial Surety Company. Get Protected Now