Why Are Businesses Targets of Identity Theft?
Businesses are a prime target for identity thieves — particularly small- to mid-size businesses that have access to customer’s personal and payment information. These types of businesses generally don’t have robust cybersecurity protections, and as such can be low hanging fruit for fraudsters. The barriers of entry for bad actors tend to be low, and the returns are potentially much higher than simple consumer identity theft.
Did You Know? Many businesses — particularly small businesses — operate on razor-thin margins. Significant financial losses or even a hit to your reputation by way of a data breach could be your organization’s downfall.
There are two main ways your business might be vulnerable. First, criminals can obtain the identity information for your business and use it to acquire credit in that business name. (Read more about risk-factors in our complete identity theft protection guide.) That’s particularly dangerous because businesses can typically apply for larger lines of credit than individuals can, and these requests typically go through less rigorous scrutiny.
Second, you may be at risk if your company collects and holds on to a significant amount of customers’ personally identifiable information like account numbers, birthdays, social security numbers, and addresses. You’re legally obligated to protect this information from data breaches, and identity thieves are constantly looking for vulnerabilities to snatch it from you.
What Features Should I Look For When Selecting an Identity Theft Solution for my Business?
The best identity theft solutions for businesses, like the ones mentioned above, are going to work around the clock to protect your brand and your finances. However, these features are going to vary from service to service. You really want to be on the lookout for products that offer:
Cybercrime and Data Breach Monitoring
Several services offer data breach monitoring that will alert you if hackers have infiltrated your network with the intention of swiping your customers’ information. We consider this to be a critical feature when selecting an identity theft protection service for a business.
Dark Web Monitoring for Leaked Information
The majority of black markets where stolen data is traded exist in the underbelly of the internet known as the dark web. This term refers to a digital space made up of unindexed web pages that are only accessible using specific browsers and software. Identity theft protections worth their salt will scan these marketplaces for your businesses’ proprietary information and alert you if it’s showing up where it shouldn't.
Did You Know? The Internet is divided into two sections — the surface web and the deep web. There’s nothing inherently nefarious about the deep web — that just refers to web pages that aren’t indexed by search engines. The dark web is a very small subset of the deep web and it’s where you’ll find bad actors carrying out their identity theft schemes.
Malware and Hacking Protections
While monitoring is important, you’re also going to want to shore up your defenses against cybercriminals’ main attack vectors. This means selecting a service that will alert you when suspicious emails show up, unexplained traffic hits your website, or if your WiFi network has vulnerabilities. You also might want to consider services that offer antivirus protections and a virtual private network as well.
Insurance and Restoration
Even if you invest in robust identity theft protections and take precautions to keep your company and your data safe, the unfortunate reality is that some enterprising criminal might get lucky and slip through your defenses.
That’s why it’s important to seek out an identity theft protection service that guarantees reimbursement and restoration should the worst come to pass. Most offer some sort of insurance — typically up to $1 million — in stolen funds reimbursement, and a few offer white-glove incident-to-resolution professional guidance to ensure the impact of an identity theft incident on your finances and reputation is minimized.
What are the Potential Consequences of Not Protecting Your Business?
Simply put, the consequences can be dire. Loss of business income or having money stolen from a business account can leave your organization unable to fulfill payroll and tax obligations. You may be left scrambling to bridge the financial gap yourself.
And that decision could open up a new can of worms. Most business credit cards and loans require a personal guarantee on the part of one or more business owners. If you’re unable to make payments from the businesses, you might end up personally liable for the debt.
Fraudulent purchases made in the company name will more than likely be tied to your personal information, so when they are inevitably sent to collections, your personal credit will take a hit. This can lead to all sorts of problems.
You’re also likely to be slapped with heavy fines from data regulators. These fines cost large, well-known companies whose data becomes compromised hundreds of millions of dollars per year, and small- to mid-sized businesses without those resources can rarely weather the storm.
To get an idea of exactly how much we’re talking, take a look at this quick chart.
Data Breaches and Their Costs
| Company |
Cost |
| Equifax |
$575 Million |
| OPM |
$500 Million |
| Target |
$300 Million |
| Uber |
$150 Million |
| Marriott |
$124 Million |
With this in mind, we hope this comprehensive guide to the best identity theft protection services for businesses has helped you to narrow down your options and find the right fit for your company.
Final Thoughts
Investing in identity theft protection for your business keeps it safe from threats you can’t see until it’s too late. They monitor for signs of stolen credentials, changes to your business credit score, and a whole lot more to identify when your business might be at risk. Then, they tell you exactly what to do to protect yourself. But, which service is the best?
In our opinion, NordStellar offers the best protection for businesses. Even though it doesn’t offer identity theft insurance like most of its competitors, they offer the most advanced monitoring in the industry. And hey, if your business’ identity doesn’t get stolen thanks to NordStellar’s monitoring, you’d never need the insurance anyways. If you want insurance with your business identity theft protection, we recommend Identity Guard®, LifeLock, or IdentityForce.
Features of Business Identity Theft Solutions
