Client Spotlight
Eric Casazza, CEO of FMT Consultants
About FMT: FMT is a seasoned provider of integrated business solutions and information technology services throughout the US and Canada with a significant presence in San Diego County, Los Angeles County, and Orange County.
FMT Consultants works with a variety of companies offering technology solutions for a variety of needs across all channels. How important is Cyber Liability insurance to your business in order to protect yourselves and your clients from the high potential costs of cyber attacks?
FMT Consultants works with hundreds of clients to implement and support leading technology solutions to transform their business. As part of our partnership with clients, insurance plays a key role in this to ensure all parties a protected. Cyber Liability has become increasingly important and is now essential to our clients to know that on top of our stringent processes, policies, and training that this coverage is in place.
Do certain clients require cyber liability coverage on FMT’s side in order to do business together and why?
More and more clients are requiring this, and it is always required with clients that are managing PHI, and credit card data. With our clients that have a nexus in Europe they are starting to including this with the additional GDPR requirements.
Are you seeing an increase in cyber attacks or potential attacks, and are the risks evolving quickly as technology changes?
The risk has been there for a long time, and people become more focused and aware of it when they hear of large name brands getting hacked. Locally, we know of several companies this has happened to recently, fortunately none we are working with on the security side. It was certainly a business impact to them and wake up call to tighten their security, and backup and disaster recovery processes.
How important is online education and cyber risk awareness training for your employees to avoid cyber risk?
Working in the IT space, our team members are more aware of this than most, and we certainly see the phishing attacks and other types of common attacks. As part of the overall strategy, employee training and awareness is critical.
Do you see this line of your comprehensive insurance coverage becoming more important in the future, as costs to defend breaches in identity, technology, and confidential information rise?
It certainly has been on an increasing trend over the past several years, and I would only see this increasing in the future.
“Any organization that stores and maintains customer information or collects online payment information, or uses the cloud, should consider adding cyber insurance to its budget. Also consider the proliferation of devices that now connect to business networks — there are simply more opportunities for malicious folks to access an organization’s assets”