Bipartisan Measure Helps Protects Small Biz from Online Hackers
WASHINGTON – House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH) today applauded House passage of H.R. 5064, the Improving Small Business Cyber Security Act of 2016, bipartisan legislation which gives small businesses access to additional tools, resources and expertise to help protect their sensitive electronic data from cyber-threats.
“American small businesses are under cyberattack like never before,” said House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH). “Small businesses employ about half of the private sector workforce and generate 54% of annual sales in our economy. We need to be doing all we can to help protect these job creators and their customers against the great and growing array of cyber-threats they face on a daily basis. This bipartisan, common sense legislation will help small businesses access the tools they need to protect themselves from cyberattacks in this dangerous new digital landscape.”
Improving cybersecurity for America’s 28 million small businesses has been a top priority for the House Small Business Committee throughout the 114th Congress. Over the past year, small business owners who have been the victims of cyberattacks have shared their harrowing personal stories with Committee members.
“I logged into our bank accounts, and to my utter horror, I found that my balance was zero,” said Rick Snow, a small business owner from Maine who testified before the Committee earlier this year. “This was a pay day, and I was terrified that the paychecks that were issued that day would not clear. We were supporting a number of families, many of which live paycheck-to-paycheck and could not have made it without the paycheck we issued them that day.”
“I was also very worried about our business’ reputation since a restaurant nearby had just bounced their paychecks and the company never recovered from the bad publicity they received from not making their payroll,” Snow added.
The legislation was introduced by Subcommittee on Contracting and the Workforce Chairman Richard Hanna (R-NY). Full Committee Chairman Chabot and Ranking Member Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) were original co-sponsors of the legislation, which now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
BACKGROUND
According to a report from Verizon Enterprises, 71 percent of cyber-attacks occurred in businesses with fewer than 100 employees in 2012.
As The Hartford Courantreported last week: “The National Small Business Association, in its year-end 2015 report, found that 42 percent of small businesses surveyed reported they were victims of a cyber attack, costing them on average $7,115. For firms whose bank accounts were hacked, that number was higher at $32,020, up from $19,948 in 2014. Sixteen percent of respondents said it took longer than two weeks to restore their data.”
Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) are non-federal resource partners that operate in a cooperative agreement with the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The SBDC program is the largest small businesses assistance program in terms of facilities and outreach with nearly 1,000 SBDCs around the country. The assistance offered by SBDCs is provided at no or low cost to small businesses and enables aspiring entrepreneurs and existing businesses to take advantage of skills and expertise from partner agencies and institutions.
The House Small Business Committee hearings in April 2016 and July 2016 featured testimony from cybersecurity experts and small business owners about the threat
