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Forty-three percent of mid-sized businesses say they have experienced a data breach in the past three years and 13 percent have had a supplier’s data breach impact their business information.

Also, according to The Hartford’s survey of midsize business owners and C-level executives, most midsize business leaders (82 percent) consider a data breach at least a minor risk to their business. Nearly one-third (32 percent) view it as a major risk.

A majority (53 percent) consider IT security and data protection practices “very important” when selecting a suppliers.

“All types of businesses have networks and networks can be vulnerable to a breach,” said Joe Coray, vice president of The Hartford’s Technology & Life Science Practice. “As we have seen in recent years, a breach involving a supplier or vendor can impact a business as much as a breach of its own IT systems. Whether businesses are hosting their data internally or entrusting it to external business partners, it is important that they validate how their information is being secured.”

Only 36 percent consider a supplier’s contingency planning and 28 percent view a supplier’s location relative to their business as very important.

“Given what is at stake in terms of a company’s operations and reputation, evaluating a prospective supplier or vendor’s IT security and data protection protocols against current best practices should be a critical part of a company’s due diligence process,” said Coray.

The The Hartford’s 2014 Midsize Business Monitor survey was fielded from September 16-23, 2014. More than 500 owners and C-level executives of midsize businesses headquartered in the U.S. with annual sales or revenues of $10 million to $1 billion participated in the online survey, which had a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

Source: The Hartford

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