6 Big Business Insurance Risks (and How to Mitigate Them)
Every business comes with a certain amount of risk. Although pitfalls and challenges can't be avoided, they can be mitigated with the proper precautions, planning and insurance coverage.
Insurance and legal experts shared their thoughts on today's biggest insurance risks for business owners, and what you can do to protect yourself against them.
Data breaches
Businesses in all industries have seen a huge increase in cybersecurity problems in recent years. Chris Roach, managing director and national IT practice leader of CBIZ Risk & Advisory Services, said data hacks have hit fast-food retailers and e-commerce businesses particularly hard. However, he added that every business that accepts credit cards should be re-evaluating and standardizing its security practices to protect against fraudulent activity.
What to do: If you have a brick-and-mortar store, one of the most important things you can do is ensure that your credit card technology meets EMV standards, to prevent fraud liability from falling onto your shoulders, Roach said. Every business should also review its compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), he said.
"Complying with PCI DSS protects a merchant against digital data security breaches across their entire payment network, not just a single card," Roach said. "Failure to comply can result in penalties and fines if a data breach does occur on your end."
Cyberinsurance is also an important consideration for small businesses. Myles Gibbons, president of select accounts at Travelers, said that more than half of data breaches last year occurred in companies of 250 or fewer employees.
"Cybercoverage has grown increasingly important to all types of businesses and can help to protect them from the costs of data breach notification, remediation, card payment penalties, crisis management and public relations," he said. [See Related Story: Small Business Insurance: What Do You Need?]