We need to talk about your business and cyber

What questions should you ask yourself?

You may not be aware of the cyber risks your business faces and if that’s the case, you are not alone. Cyber-attacks and investigations can cost you seriously large sums of money but the aftermath of an attack can result in reputational damage which can be even more detrimental to your business. Before taking any actions, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions to understand what exposure you have and where you should focus your activity:

- Are you prepared for a cyber-attack?

- Do you have a plan in place outlining what to do in the event of a cyber-attack or breach?

- Who manages your IT?

- Do you have the funds available to pay for a legal defence if you are found to have breached regulations?

- How would you recover funds that an employee has been misled into paying into a fraudster’s bank account?

How your business can be targeted?

You might be surprised to hear that you are now more at risk of a cyber-attack than you are of having your premises broken into. You will probably have received emails from spammers trying to catch you out. These strategies are getting increasingly more sophisticated and frequent, especially since more people have been working from home during the lockdown period. A recent report showed that the number of enterprises taking out a cyber insurance policy has increased by 340% since the lockdown began, which could be due to the noticeable hike in cyber-criminal activity.

Whilst we all have an image in our heads as to what a cyber-attack looks like, something along the lines of someone hacking into your software to obtain or hold business data for ransom, this isn’t the only cyber risk to your business so we want to help highlight what else is happening right now and how you can protect your business. 

But I outsource my IT to a specialist firm?

No one is immune to a cyber-attack, even the specialist IT firm that manages your systems. What happens if they are the targets of a cyber incident? Can you guarantee that you won’t be affected by association? How much of your business data do they hold that can be accessed by a cyber attacker? Will they be able to continue to manage service standards for your business if they are focusing on the damage to their own business? These are all questions you need to ask yourself and so we encourage you to use our checklist to assess your level of risk. We also think you should read on to find out how you can better protect your business for a relatively small expense!

There is a Cyber Risk to almost every business, but what’s your level of risk?

Having emerged over time and changed so quickly, it's essential to understand some of the potential risks your business faces that you may not have considered before now. We have created a scorecard to help assess your company's exposure to cyber threats. Click on the link below and answer a small number of yes/no questions to get an indication as to whether your business could be considered to have a high or low level of cyber risk. Head back to this article when you are done to find out what steps you can take to further protect your business.

What does a Cyber Insurer do?

Whether you are a massive company or not, the key to limiting the impact of a cyber-attack on your business is the speed of response. Immediate actions are needed but sometimes it’s hard to know what to do and where to turn.

It's common to find the specialist cyber insurers are partnered with specialist solicitors and information security experts. This gives you an integrated solution for managing a cyber incident, including rapid legal response, IT forensics and help to navigate regulatory issues. These specialists all work together to contain, recover and assess an attack although they are often instrumental in stopping a cyber event causing wider financial and reputational damage.

The above is what you’ll see happen in the event of a claim but ultimately, we want to avoid one happening in the first place. Cyber Liability policies will provide certain cover for a variety of scenarios and they are often complemented by rafts of resources for you to utilise to help to secure your business against cyber-attacks. As it is quite a complex field, you’ll often find that cyber insurance policies also have helplines to call in order to obtain legal and technical guidance as well as IT security advisory services.

The Key Benefits available through Cyber Insurance

• Business Interruption cover will cover loss of income caused by the interruption a cyber-attack can have on your ability to trade.
• Privacy Breach Costs will cover instances where customer data is stolen. You will need cyber insurance to guide you in letting the affected clients know, secure the breach and be on hand to cover any legal costs associated with the breach once it is notified to regulators.
• Cyber Extortion/Ransom is where data from your systems is stolen and a fee demanded by the hacker in exchange for the safe return of your data. Cyber Insurance can cover this.
• Reputational Damage/Public Relations specialists are on hand to provide positive exposure for your business following a cyber-attack.
• Media Liability covers you in the event a claim is brought against you for libel, slander, defamation etc., as a result of a hacker tampering with your systems and impacting your media presence.
• Social Engineering covers instances where fraudulent emails are sent to you from accounts that appear alarmingly convincing requesting payment of funds for a genuine invoice that is outstanding which you pay but unknowingly transfer those funds to a hacker’s accounts. Without Cyber Liability insurance, how else would you recover these funds? What if the payment was for £10,000. Can your business take a financial hit of this size?

Click here to see a summary of the key information for a cyber product with one of our key insurer partners.

Sounds great but how much is Cyber Insurance going to cost me?

We have been working with one of our key cyber insurance providers to create a product and service that delivers great benefits to our clients and is also exceptionally affordable. The below table shows an indication of what you will pay based on the turnover of your business and the level of cover you would like; 

*All premiums are annual costs for a cyber insurance policy

**All premiums include insurance premium tax (12%) 

*** the premiums listed above are subject to adjustment based on your individual risk requirements and cover options.

Let's talk!

If you want to find out more on the topic of cyber insurance or if you would like to get a quote, please get in touch with your usual A&T contact or complete the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.