CYBER & PRIVACY INSURANCE
Cybercrime is one of the fastest-growing crimes globally, and almost all businesses are at risk of being a victim. With data being one of the most valuable commodities in the world, we encourage all businesses to review their cyber insurance requirements and take proactive preventative measures to protect their business from falling victim to a cyber-attack.
A comprehensive cyber insurance policy can cover your business for any direct or indirect loss of funds, but also provides your business with access to a range of resources including access to 24-hour incident response lines.
Policy prices can vary depending on the industry you work in, the data you store, how you process payments in the business and the level of coverage your business requires. For most industries quotations can be provided within 48 hours by answering a few basic questions.
As expected, “higher” risk industries processing sensitive data such as financial and medical records will be required to provide more in-depth information about their internal systems, processes, and the controls they have in place to prevent their business from falling victim to a cyber-attack.
DOES MY BUSINESS REALLY NEED CYBER INSURANCE?
Often, businesses believe they are already protected and do not require cyber insurance for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:
Technology outsourcing
Cloud storage
Anti-virus software installed
Competent internal or external IT team
However, even having all of the above resources cannot always secure businesses from the sophisticated and constantly evolving technology used by criminal hackers.
Whilst data stored externally may be in the hands of a third party with certain protective benefits, your business and income is still likely to be reliant on those systems working. Your clients will still deem you responsible should something happen to their data, whether that be directly through your business or indirectly through a technology provider.
We must also face the fact that humans are unfortunately the weakest link in the chain. Market leading cyber risk insurance provider CFC Underwriting claim that three quarters of the claims they deal with are caused by ‘easily avoidable’ human error, such as clicking on phishing emails and allowing criminals access to your private data.
WHAT CAN CYBER INSURANCE COVER?
The cover offered within a cyber insurance policy can be broken down into 3 key components:
Provision of Resources - This, often unconsidered benefit of a cyber policy, involves the quick deployment of expert resources into your business. On hand are cyber security professionals, forensic investigators, and lawyers, as well as expert administration teams who will help provide resource and get in touch with your clients in the unfortunate event of a data breach.
Reimbursement of Financial Losses - The most frequently thought of benefit of any insurance, is the reimbursement costs for the likes of theft of funds from invoice fraud, damaged system replacement costs, increased costs of working and direct loss of profit.
Compensation - Financial reward to the business for damages such as reputational harm, regulatory fines, defamation, and intellectual property rights infringement.
If you would like to find out how Simcox Brokers can help your business, please contact a member of our friendly team for an honest no obligation discussion.
CYBER INSURANCE UK
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do any industries not require Cyber Insurance in the UK?
Regardless of the industry you work in, or your level of computer based work, at Simcox Brokers, we encourage all companies to review their risk and need for Cyber Insurance and are here to support you through this process to make sure you have the right level of protection in place.
With increased use of technology, we believe it is unlikely that your business is not at risk from cybercrime in some way shape or form, with potential cyber risks such as data breaches, fund transfer fraud, ransomware and phishing amongst others, being areas where many businesses are still unprotected!
Do we need Cyber Risk Insurance if we outsource all our IT?
Using a third party provider for IT might change your exposure, but it doesn’t eliminate it altogether.
In the event of a data breach, if your company outsources your data storage to a third party and that third party is breached, the responsibility for notifying affected individuals and dealing with any subsequent regulatory actions that may arise would likely rest with your company.
In addition, most businesses rely on third parties for business critical systems, and should your provider experience a system failure, it could seriously effect your ability to trade, resulting in a business interruption loss and increased costs occured which a policy could cover.
Whilst it may be possible to claim losses back from IT providers, it is not guaranteed.
We don't collect or store sensitive data, do we still need a policy?
A cyber insurance policy is about more than just a data breaches and privacy risk.
Industry leading cyber insurance provider CFC Underwriting state that two of the most common sources of cyber claims are funds transfer fraud and system damage or business interruption as a result of ransomware.
How much does Cyber Insurance cost?
It is hard to give an exact figure as each business is different but prices can start from as little as £300 for a basic cover for a small business however, we realistically would say policies start around £1,000 for a more comprehensive cover for an 'average' size business.
The addition of 'cyber crime' (which incorporates covers such as funds transfer fraud and theft of funds) will increase the cost of a policy but is certainly a cover worth considering.