Builders Under Siege: Cyber Attacks on General Contractors
Download MP3So if you are in the building and construction trade you might not think that cyber risk or cyber attacks is a big uh possibility for your company. You may think that you're not a computer company, you're not a tech company. What do you care about cyber? Well, as a licensed general contractor but also we are a licensed commercial insurance broker we understand that cyber actually can affect anybody.
Just this week, there was a very large cyber attack against a company called CDK. CDK provided software for car dealerships. Because of that, 10 to 15,000 car dealerships have been shut down for a week and can't sell cars because of this attack. So even if you're a construction company, there might be a very high risk of a cyber attack that could affect you. It may not attack you directly, but it may affect one of your vendors, one of your suppliers, or maybe even software used for design or layout or other types of processes.
Even if you don't consider yourself a tech company, things like your payroll, your accounts receivable, contracting, surety bonds, all those may go through some platform. If you're unable to access those for some period of time, it may delay a construction project to put you past a deadline. Maybe it doesn't allow you to get a draw for a benchmark on a process of construction. Maybe the delay messes up your payroll where you can't keep your help. There are dozens of scenarios where a cyber attack can affect your construction business that you may not be aware of.
It's not that you know you're stupid or you don't know things, but there's a lot of hidden electronic and cyber connections your company has. You want to get good advice from a cyber defense person, company, or from a cyber insurance expert. You can see our website below, actualhuman.com. We'll have access to experts in all those fields, and you can do a consultation and talk to them about the risks might be and talk to your insurance broker about cyber policies.
Now, make sure when you talk to them you're talking about a standalone separate cyber policy, not just a rider or an endorsement on your existing policy. Most of the add-ons to an existing policy are very low limits, $15,000 of cover, and they have a lot of exclusions. They really don't cover a lot of things. You want to look at a separate standalone cyber liability insurance policy. They're not that expensive and nowadays the risk that you have as a business is much higher probability that the loss is going to come from a cyber attack, not something like fire burns down your warehouse or some other type of damage. The higher probability of risk comes from cyber attacks, and again even though you're not a tech company, you're a builder, there's risks and liabilities and perils you have that could really knock you out of business if you're not careful.
Thank you for watching. Remember you can access live one-on-one personal consultations with a licensed private investigator, a licensed commercial insurance broker, a licensed certified real estate title examiner, and also a certified civil court mediator. So if you have a need to talk to an expert in any of these fields or even a licensed building general contractor, you can click the link below, actualhuman.com, and arrange a live one-on-one undivided attention with a licensed expert where you can ask any questions, get information about your situation, and we'd be glad to help.