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business hackedIdentity theft, database corruption, corporate espionage, and lost public faith. Businesses relying on tech to not just maintain a competitive edge, but to do business at all will have a lot to lose when hackers strike. So, if your business is hacked, who’s on the hook liability wise?

If you’re not already living a tech lifestyle, it’s easy to fall behind. Even if you’re a hobbyist, a lot of the newest threats are hard to find until they hit you personally or professionally.

Here are a few tech security details to help you understand what’s at risk, and to help you safeguard your tech assets.

What Happens After A Business Is Hacked?

Unless you’ve already been a victim of hacking at the business level, you may not know about the high stakes involved. The bills for repairs, business cleanup, and even customer cleanup will usually land in your lap.

Productivity slows down, but how much? How does that factor into your business, and how can you get around that?

Hackers steal information, but what does that do to your business? If you own a secret patent or new trade secret that gives you an edge over another business, the answer is obvious. What if you’re just making money in an existing industry and not making major waves?

The major costs involved with hacking for average—and even struggling—businesses is harder to see at first. Consider productivity as the first major problem.

When your systems are hacked, you may lose access to the certain parts of your business. If employee workstations are broken or running too slowly to process information, the job either comes to a screeching halt or slows down.

This means pushing out products slower, finishing tasks slower, and paying employees the same money for less work. After that, you need to fix the problem, replace your tech, or figure out a workaround.

Stolen data isn’t only about trade secrets and espionage. Hackers can use that stolen information to make purchases or start legal actions in your name, your business’ name, or in the name of your employees.

Do you handle personal information for customers? If your business is hacked, you can’t just apologize and move on. Companies fight negligence lawsuits and have to prove themselves in a world that expects tech competence no matter what.

Prepare For The Worst To Lose Less

Some businesses demand an all-or-nothing solution. Protect this business from everything, or else.

It’s a big demand. It’s a bold statement, straight from the Customer Is Always Right playbook. Unfortunately, no matter how many loud demands or legal threats are thrown at tech security professionals, there is no such thing as a perfect defense.

That doesn’t mean giving up and giving into identity thieves, data thieves, spies, and hackers of all types. It simply means that you need to insure your tech assets for when you are hacked.

Cyber liability insurance helps businesses when the biggest, newest threats lay waste to the tech world. There’s a difference between a careless, unsecured network and being the victim of threats that the biggest corporations can’t block.

Cyber Liability insurance gives you a chance to rebound while learning from the experience. Once you know your tech weaknesses, you can spend resources on better security, newer systems, and accurate tech training.

Contact a cyber liability insurance professional to discuss your business tech risks. With their help, you can create a better plan for defense, recovery, and innovation.