As businesses become ever more reliant on technology, the risk of suffering a loss related to problems with computer systems, holding sensitive customer data such as names and addresses or own employees pay roll data, continues to grow.

Cyber is an area of exposure GPS Insurance Brokers can provide a solution for, as insurance cover is available for this ever growing risk to your business.

Size doesn’t matter

Hearing in the news of the well-known brand names suggest the hackers are targeting large companies but cyber criminals don’t care what size a firm is! Hacking in to a large firm can be time consuming and specialist underwriters are saying that they are seeing more cases where the cyber criminals target their suppliers and smaller businesses instead. Their security may not be so robust and it can be a much easier way to get hold of the same data.

The UK Cyber Security report which was led by the Cabinet office found that while 81% of large organisations had suffered a cyber security breach, 60% of SMEs had also been hacked.

Accidents do happen

According to the UK Cyber Security Report, more than 60% of incidents reported to insurers are the result of an accident. These can include an employee leaving a laptop on the train or someone emailing data to the wrong person.   Unfortunately, whether human error or something more malicious, where there’s a data breach, there can be significant penalties.

TalkTalk Cyber Attack

You will no doubt have read recently about the TalkTalk cyber attack. This was a classic online web attack with a high public noise element and has brought encryption into the spotlight due to the CEO being uncertain as to whether or not the data was encrypted. This in turn leads to a discussion about the costs associated with encryption vs those associated with a breach. The end result was the arrest of a 15 year old in Northern Ireland and extensive costs to Talk Talk.

Small Chain of Opticians Cyber Attack

A small chain of opticians suffered a cyber-attack when an employee clicked on a malicious spam email claiming to be in relation to a speeding offence. As a result, the link encrypted swathes of their data rendering it unusable. The optician were contacted by the originators of the attack requesting a ransom fee to provide the decryption keys. The client engaged the Insurer who met the total costs incurred (c£60,000) in payment of the ransom, IT forensic costs, business interruption and loss of data.

On a more dangerous scale, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne, said earlier this week that Islamic State militants are trying to develop the ability to launch deadly cyber attacks on UK targets such as air traffic control or hospitals. He is set to double UK funding to fight cyber crime to £1.9bn over five years. Mr Osbourne said, “If our electricity supply, or our air traffic control, or our hospitals were successfully attacked online, the impact could be measured not just in terms of economic damage but of lives lost.”

No two businesses are the same when it comes to buying Cyber cover.

Whether it’s customers personal details, credit card records or trade secrets, data is key to the operations and success of many businesses today. But, as this data can also be valuable to others, it’s become a prime target for cyber criminals. We are working closely with a specialist Insurer who has launched a new comprehensive insurance product designed to protect your business in the unfortunate event of a data breach, or if are subject to an attack by a malicious hacker.   Cyber liability insurance cover can include:

• Data breach/privacy crisis management cover. For example, expenses related to the management of an incident, the investigation, the remediation, data subject notification, call management, credit checking for data subjects, legal costs, court attendance and regulatory fines.
• Multimedia/Media liability cover. Third-party damages covered can include specific defacement of website and intellectual property rights infringement.
• Extortion liability cover. Typically, losses due to a threat of extortion, professional fees related to dealing with the extortion.
• Network security liability. Third-party damages as a result of denial of access, costs related to data on third-party suppliers and costs related to the theft of data on third-party systems.

If you would like to take advantage of a free quotation for cyber liability insurance please call GPS Insurance Brokers on 020 8207 7385.