Can’t afford Cyber Insurance? Can’t afford not to…

Can’t afford Cyber Insurance? Can’t afford not to… - Peter Vickers Business Group

By PETER VICKERS INSURANCE BROKERS | cyber insurance, small business insurance |

The Australian Government estimates almost 700, 000 businesses have experienced a cyber crime, 60% of these attacks were targeted at small to medium size business with the average cost of a cyber crime being in excess of $275, 000.¹

Does your business heavily rely on IT to operate? Does your business handle sensitive information? All it takes is one accidental click on one dubious email by one employee to expose your business!

Businesses and personal users are all subject to a variety of risks such as viruses, spam, phishing, worms, hacking etc. To counter some of these threats, users employ a number of add-ons such as antivirus and anti-spam software, firewalls and intrusion detection systems to reduce the likelihood of being attacked.

Despite continual improvements to risk protection techniques it is impossible to achieve perfect cyber-security protection. The nature of cyber attacks is continually evolving making it increasingly difficult to protect against them.

We continually hear in the media cases where businesses that we would expect to have appropriate levels of security have data breaches such as Kmart, Ashley Madison and Linkedin. The Linkedin security breach is now thought to have affected approximately 117 million people. So no matter what size your company, and whatever measures you take, hacking is a risk. Cyber “specialists” are always one stop ahead with “zero days” – vulnerabilities that were previously unknown, such as in the recent hacking of iphone, occurring from time to time.

This is where Cyber Insurance can provide peace of mind to businesses. Depending on the type of risk you have you can choose to cover a small sum or large sum. A broker can assist you in
determining your level of risk and the scope of coverage required.

First party coverage insures the losses to your business directly resulting from a cyber attack and can include;

System damage
Lost, damaged or destroyed data/records
Retrieving, repairing, restoring or
replacing data, systems or hardware
External legal, IT forensic or security
consultant costs
Loss of profits due to Cyber Attack

Third party coverage insures the losses sustained to third parties associated with your business (for example your clients as a direct result of the data breach) and can include;

The cost of the privacy breach or suspected privacy breach including credit monitoring, identity theft monitoring, data restoration and forensic and legal costs.
Liability costs associated with any breach of
employee or customer privacy.
Protection against libel, slander or defamation
Infringements of copyright, trademarks and trade names
Breach of statutory duty from eCommerce relating to security and management of data
Public relations costs to protect the company brand and personal reputation of senior executives
Given that even the largest companies who spend large budgets on security experience cyber crime, the threat to SMEs is always present.

Many business and general liability policies do not include cyber insurance so talk to one of our brokers to find out if you’re covered and if not they will help you find comprehensive cover that is affordable and tailored to your needs.

¹Cgu.ink/cybercrimeausgovt

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