AS A SECURITY ALARM OR CENTRAL MONITORING STATION YOU NEED TO READ THIS MESSAGE OF CONCERN AND OPPORTUNITY.
Since 2005, over 340,000,000 records have been stolen or inadvertently exposed by businesses. Identity theft, fraud, and privacy violations have become an epidemic in recent years. If you collect, use, transmit or store information about your customers, you must comply with the laws and regulations that help protect consumers. A system breach requires full disclosure to governmental authorities, and to those consumers whose information was stolen. The costs of customer mitigation can be substantial. Additionally, governmental fines for failure to protect information can put you out of business. In the event your information management systems are not in compliance with these laws and regulations at the time of the breach, you also may face punitive fines for non-compliance. Your financial exposure is significant including the cost associated with a loss of customers.
HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOURSELF FROM RISK?
First, consider purchasing a cyber security endorsement for your G&L insurance policy. Remember, your G&L policy does not cover cyber losses, and the endorsement will likely not cover punitive fines. The next step is to become compliant and maintain that certification year over year. Compliance is not an easy task. It requires detailed knowledge of the risk management requirements and processes. One option is to retain lawyers and IT professionals to create and manage these requirements for you, which could be at considerable expense. The second, and most affordable and effective option, is to retain SFA and INVISUS to assist you in managing this process. We can provide this service for less than $40 per week up to 20 employees, or just over $80 per week for up to 50 employees. It includes development of a required security management manual, assistance with employee security information meetings, and penetration studies to try to hack into your systems. We work with you to bring you into compliance with the regulations and then, most importantly, we certify your compliance.
CERTIFY YOUR BUSINESS
Each year that you subscribe to our service, we will award you an InfoSafe Certificate for use on your web site, marketing materials, and other corporate communications. This Certificate is confirmation that you are in base-line compliance with all of the requisite governmental regulations. This Certificate is a “STAMP OF APPROVAL” for information risk management. Over time, you will likely find that you will gain a competitive advantage with your competitors who are not certified. Your customers (especially government customers) will be “stickier” because they have the confidence that you manage information correctly and in conformance with governmental regulations.
To see if you are compliant, take the test on the InfoSafe section of our Web site
For further information contact: Tony Smith (626) 795-9199 or George Schmid (949) 887-1945
