Why Do You Need a Cyber Insurance Cover For Your Business?
By Richard Brooks, Senior Account Executive, Albanwise Insurance Services
Cyber threats are on the rise at an escalating pace in the UK, affecting both large corporates and SMEs alike. Latest numbers reveal some staggering insights: 1 in 5 UK businesses have experienced a cyber attack or incident with nearly 1 in 10 small businesses, and 35% of large corporates, having experienced a cyber threat [1]– all testimony to the scale and pace at which cyber attacks are increasing, year on year.
Coalition Inc in its latest findings, have highlighted in its latest report – Cyber Threat Index 2024 –a comprehensive overview of trends and patterns in cyber threat attacks, potential threats and what companies need to look out for. The report predicts and anticipates a 25% rise in common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) in 2024, that translates to 34,888 vulnerabilities, or roughly 2,900 monthly vulnerabilities.2 This is not all. The National Cyber Security Centre in a recent report, concludes that with the advent of AI, in the near-term, global ransomware threats are expected to rise. The TalkTalk data breach in October 2015, where information of 156,959 customers were accessed, including their bank and sort code details, illustrates the need for organisations to take proactive steps to improve their resilience to such attacks.
These findings, alarming as they may sound, are just the tip of the iceberg and tell us half the story. However, what they do bring to our attention is the urgent need for organisations to act now: introducing security measures into their systems, and most importantly ways and means to protect the enormous amount of data and personal information that they and their servers hold.
Why is your business at risk?
Working in the property sector, you will be holding onto a large amount of confidential data, including financial and sensitive information about your leaseholders, clients, and the organisations they represent. In an increasingly digitised world where online transactions have become the norm, your business might be at high risk the minute you open a website that hosts a payment portal, or transactional pages that hold sensitive information about your customers.
If at any point of time, your data is breached and compromised, your business could be at potential risk of:
- -Reputational and legal damage.
- -Financial revenue loss; and
- -Breach of trust
Human-operated ransomware attacks are one of the top priority cyber threats facing organisations. According to a report released by PwC, in this type of attack, criminals hack into the victim’s network and deploy ransomware to encrypt data, before attempting to extort organisations into paying ransoms that are commonly upwards of £1million.3
Why cyber cover?
It is not just large-sized companies who are at risk of a cyber attack. Small and medium-sized companies are at an equal risk of an attack. Yet, the reality is that many companies are yet to consider putting in place, checks and security measures, which would perhaps insulate them from such an attack. This includes introducing firewalls, malware protection and bringing about a behavioural change amongst staff members, including training on cyber security best practices.
But if a cyber attack occurs, insurance can help mitigate the costs that will inevitably be incurred, and should be considered a vital part of any planning for this contingency.
Here are the key aspects to consider when choosing your cyber insurance:
What type of coverage do I need?
This may include data breach response, data restoration, business interruption, cyber extortion, liability coverage, crisis management and public relations.
Who needs cyber cover?
In this digital age, any company or individual who uses and stores sensitive data, or conducts business online, whether small or large.
Benefits of cyber insurance
- -Financially, it can help protect you and your company from the effects of a cyber attack.
- -It can assist with the PR response to any incident, to minimise reputational damage.
- – Finally, having cyber insurance in place helps business continuity in moving forward.
For more information on cyber insurance, reach out to our team of experts and specialists and we would be happy to advise and help you. Drop in a note here – and we will be glad to assist and offer our help. More information about our services and offerings can be found here.
1. https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2023/12/One-in-five-businesses-have-been-victims-of-cyber-attack-in-the-last-year/
2. Coalition’s Cyber Threat Index 2024: https://info.coalitioninc.com/rs/566-KWJ-784/images/Coalition_Cyber-Threat-Index_2024.pdf?version=0
3. PwC report, Responding to the growing threat of human-operated ransomware attacks: https://www.pwc.co.uk/issues/cyber-security-services/insights/responding-to-growing-human-operated-ransomware-attacks-threat.html
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