New EZShield SycurityMax Business Suite Ensures Compliance with Increasingly Stringent Government Regulations Mandating Security Preparedness and Breach Response

Palo Alto, Calif. (PRWEB) March 19, 2012

EZShield, a pioneer in identity theft management solutions, today announced a comprehensive security planning and breach services offering for small businesses. The EZShield SycurityMax (sm) Business Suite - comprised of Sycurity (sm) Assist and Sycurity (sm) Prepare - delivers an affordable, easy-to-implement, full-service offering that helps small businesses prevent and respond to a data breach. In particular, the solution aids in overall security planning and helps minimize the financial and reputational impact in the event sensitive customer information, such as credit card or social security numbers, is stolen. A recognized leader in payroll, human resource and benefits outsourcing is already delivering these benefits to its customers by selecting the EZShield SycurityMax Business Suite as a value-added feature to its core product offering.

"The average victim cost of small business fraud is more than double the amount of all consumer fraud, representing a difference reported to be $1.56 billion," said Phil Blank, senior analyst of security, risk and fraud, Javelin Strategy & Research. "To further complicate the problem, small businesses were significantly less able to overcome the misuse of their information, causing increased loss of revenue and potential damage to their reputation. In order to combat these issues, small business owners need resources for preventing and responding to instances of data breach to protect themselves and more importantly, the customers they serve."

Security breaches are a growing threat to small businesses, with nearly three quarters of all U.S. small businesses experiencing an attack in 2010. Of the affected businesses, 27 percent suffered a loss in revenue while 22 percent experienced direct financial costs (1). Given the significant affect an attack can have on both small businesses and the customers that frequent them, the U.S. government has enacted regulations requiring small businesses to ensure a data protection standard. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act require that certain types of companies provide instant notification if personal information is breached. In addition, almost every state and territory has enacted a "data breach notification" statute. Although statutes vary between states, data breach notification statutes generally require businesses that retain personal information about residents to notify them if an unauthorized individual acquires that data.

"In 2010 small business owners suffered fraud loss estimated at $8 billion (2). This has a profound financial and reputational impact on the business and owner," said Dale Dabbs, CEO, EZShield. "This is a real problem with real victims, as evidenced by a Chicago newsstand owner that lost $22,000 in revenue due to a breach, cutting his annual profit in half. The government is doing its part with regulations that punish non-compliance, but it is vital that technology vendors provide tools that increase security preparedness and prevent data breach. Today's announcement of the SycurityMax Business Suite directly addresses those needs for the 27 million small businesses currently operating in the U.S."