It’s not difficult to find examples almost every day now about businesses that have been subject to a Cyber attack. The list of possible ways in which is business can be attacked is growing through the likes of straightforward hacking of Data, Phone Hacking, Ransomware etc.
Recently published information states that 90% of large businesses and 75% of small businesses have suffered a security breach in the last year with the average cost of a breach being £75,000.
It’s not only large companies that are targeted – those are just the ones that you hear about in the news – small and medium sized businesses are also being attacked regularly. To a large degree, they are more vulnerable to an impact on their business, in that they don’t often have the same degree of Business Continuity Planning that larger companies have, leaving them more at risk of a bigger impact to their business.
There’s also a major misconception about the exposure a business has to the consequences of a Cyber attack, in that businesses believe that they don’t have too much of an exposure to Cyber risk because they don’t hold financial information on their customers. But what that does is underestimate that responsibility that a business has in holding data – merely losing any data that you hold on your customers (existing or potential) can lead to heavy fines. In addition, an inability to transact business following a Cyber attack can cause loss of revenue – almost every business these days relies on their IT systems to trade.
The insurance industry has responded to the increasing demand for protection following Cyber attacks with products that protect you from –
- Your liabilities towards other parties
- The impact on your own business
Products can be very low cost providing simple cover for losses following Data Breaches covering you for –
- Initial advice and Incident management
- Detailed Investigation and Restoration Costs
- Awards and Fines made against you
However, this should be seen at the bare minimum in terms of cover. Much more comprehensive products are available providing you with wider protection in addition to breach costs.
The impact on your own business:
- Cyber Business Interruption – where you are unable to earn revenue because of a Cyber attack
- Cyber Extortion – where hackers are holding you to ransom
- Hacker damage costs
Your Liability to other persons or businesses;
- Privacy Protection – costs to defend and settle claims for failing to keep a customers data secure
- Multimedia Liability – costs for copyright infringement or libel
Further extensions can include such cover as:
- Cyber Crime – direct financial loss you suffer following a hack, such as theft or money or property
- Telephone Phreaking – where telephone systems are hacked and used to make premium rate calls etc.
At BIS commercial insurance brokers Llandudno we can advise you on what product is right for you and give you a range of options to consider for your own business – just get in touch with us and we will be happy to assist.
