We’ve been getting this question a lot lately, so I wanted to take some time to explain this situation to frustrated and confused business owners.

The issue? Business insurance providers have been starting to ask questions about cybersecurity when it comes time to renew business insurance policies.

In this Q&A, we'll explore why insurance providers are focusing on cybersecurity and how it affects your business insurance. Hopefully this will help guide you in the right direction so you can continue to remain in coverage and avoid higher premiums.

Cybersecurity is a critical concern for all organizations. When you hear about cyberattacks on the news, it’s usually about large organizations that have been hacked. Unfortunately, you don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to be in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. For non-profits in Maryland, cybersecurity is a real threat.

These organizations face unique challenges, from limited budgets to specific compliance requirements. Yet, the threat of cyberattacks is ever-present and growing.

Let me ask you something: would you trust a bank that locked its doors for the night but left all its cash in a big pile in the middle of the floor? Probably not—after all, if someone managed to get through the doors, nothing would stop them from helping themselves to the funds inside.

This is effectively how cybersecurity once worked, with the presumption that if someone had access to a network, they had permission to access any data on it. Fortunately, many businesses have made the switch to a better approach, known as zero-trust security.

One of the many tasks undertaken by the United Nations is to protect human rights around the globe while also working to create more sustainable and climate-friendly development. As such, the UN has recently taken a healthy interest in the development of artificial intelligence, hoping to develop guidelines that allow us to get the most value out of AI without creating more significant problems.

That title may have gotten your attention. We’re not a huge fan of being sensationalist or clickbaity, but in this case, maybe we should make an exception:

The Penalty for Breaking Cybersecurity Laws Could Result in Prison

There’s no sugarcoating this. Now let’s talk about how you can avoid going to jail.

Baltimore businesses are no strangers to the growing threat of cyberattacks, scams, and online threats that target businesses of all shapes and sizes. One thing is for certain, it is crucial for individuals and businesses to prioritize cybersecurity in order to protect their sensitive information. But with so many different aspects to consider, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. That's where the 5 C's of cybersecurity come in—a comprehensive approach to protecting your digital assets.

In today’s interconnected world, an organization dedicated to fraud protection like the United States Federal Trade Commission is vital, especially when you consider how advanced digital technology has become and continues to grow. The FTC works to ensure consumer data stays protected by the businesses to which they entrust it. Let’s look at the Safeguards Rule and what your business should know about it.

Cloud computing has become one of the most utilized technologies in business today, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. It makes it possible for nearly any business to acquire advanced technologies that they could not afford previously, and use them to level the playing field with larger, more capital-rich companies. This month we thought we’d talk a little bit about how moving to the cloud can benefit you and your business.

To meet compliance requirements for technology an organization will need to understand the regulations they operate under. New entrepreneurs may find it startling when they realize that they have a lot more people/organizations to answer to than they thought. This week, we aren’t going to go through individual regulations, but how IT generally fits into compliance and how not staying up to date can cost your business dearly.

Regulations and compliance standards are in place for effectively every industry to uphold, many of which address cybersecurity in some way or another. Let’s talk for a moment about why compliance to these standards is of the utmost importance for your organization.

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, Governor Larry Hogan signed the measures that lawmakers had approved to earmark significant investments into cybersecurity to help protect some of Maryland’s most critical infrastructure and establishments. Let’s examine what brought this law into being, and what businesses need to emulate in their own operations.

The modern cyberthreat landscape is nothing to be trifled with, so it makes sense that as threats grow more powerful, so too do the solutions used to address them. Nowadays, there is a practice that is designed to address just how serious the threat of cybersecurity is: zero-trust IT. Let’s discuss these policies and how you might put them in place.

For much of the past decade, data privacy has been a big issue. Ever since information was unveiled on how major tech companies (and other companies) use the information gleaned from their users, there has been a cross-section of people who have started to fight back against it. Unfortunately for Americans, this hasn’t resulted in an overarching data privacy law that protects people and their personal data. This month, we’ll take a look at the data privacy environment and discuss why there haven’t been any moves by U.S. lawmakers to protect data privacy.

Most companies have some sort of regulation they need to stay compliant to, and 2021 seems to be a landmark year. Over the past year, companies have had to deal with a growing remote workforce, end-of-life upgrades, the development of new privacy laws, as well as the existing regulatory landscape. Let’s take a look at why compliance is important for your business.

Regulations are put in place for a reason: the data you keep is sensitive. Within certain environments, it is extremely important to know how to navigate so as not to mistakenly expose information that has no business being shared. This month, we thought it would be a good time to talk about how to navigate these highly-regulated environments to ensure success and security. 

Does your business accept credit cards? Of course it does. Regardless of what industry you are in, your customers are now using payment cards for a large portion of their retail transactions both online and in-store. To protect consumers, there has been a compliance standard enacted by credit card companies. Today we will look at this standard.

To the average person there are some definite blurred lines between IT security and IT compliance. In fact, these lines are so blurry to most people that they would consider them the same thing. They aren’t. How is it possible to create a fully compliant, completely secure computing environment? You start by understanding how to make both possible.