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    Cyber Security Insurance – Do you need it?

    Cyber Security Insurance – Do you need it?

    What is Cyber Insurance anyway?

    Cybersecurity insurance is a product that helps businesses reduce the impact of cybercrime activities such as malware, cyberattacks, data breaches or ransomware.

    These risks are often not covered by traditional insurance products. It does cover the costs of threats affecting IT infrastructure, information governance and policy, as well as legal costs, incident response costs, damages and recovery expenses.

    OK so do I need this cover?

    In a world where cyber threats are constantly changing, cyber insurance can help your organisation to get back-to-business should something cyber-related go wrong. As well as minimising business downtime and providing financial protection during an incident, cyber insurance may help with legal and regulatory action after an incident. Managing cyber incidents may require in-depth technical knowledge and there are specialist response teams and companies available to help at a moments notice, however the cost of their expertise is high.

    Before considering any cyber insurance, you can help protect your organisation by ensuring you have fundamental cyber security safeguards in place, such as those certified by Cyber Essentials, or Cyber Essentials Plus.

    Holding these accreditations will often lower your insurance premium as it demonstrates an understanding of risk, and that steps have been taken to mitigate the potential damage.

    Note

    Cyber insurance will not solve all your cyber security issues, and it will not stop a cyber attack. Businesses should have adequate security measures in place & organisations must continue to put security in place, such as firewalls, MFA and training, to protect their data. – Hopefully your IT department or IT Service provider do this.

    One very effective and additional component is EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), read more here: What Is Endpoint Detection and Response? (huntress.com)

    Do you fully understand the potential impacts of a cyber incident?

    A cyber incident can impact any business in a variety of ways. For example, ransomware could mean your data, systems or devices are unavailable, or you may lose data, or your customers’ data, due to virus or malware infection.

    It is important to build up a full understanding of how you operate and how you might be affected. This includes the financial impact of business downtime, and the associated costs of response and recovery.

    Of course, if you’ve done some sensible things (Like ensuring the backup is kept separate from your network, or in a cloud service designed for this purpose), then ransomware attacks will have a smaller impact.

    (Please note – we are not saying that attacks could not happen, or will not happen. We acknowledge that no solution or combination of tools is 100% going to prevent an attack)

    Unlike the risk of fire or theft, cyber incidents are often not restricted to a single location. Understanding how your organisation operates and the interactions between different areas is crucial to determining the extent of an incident, which may have widespread implications.

    Reputation is another factor that needs to be considered. Many businesses have suffered far more by their reputational damage over the initial cost of a breach.

    Lets take a look at a ransomware attack in 2021.

    A global software company, lost a huge number of clients and prospective clients after they suffered an attack. The attack was effectively a supply-chain attack, meaning that their own customers were affected, reportedly around 1,500 businesses. The news went right up to the White House and as such, the impact on their business was significant.

    The recovery took a number of weeks for some of the end users.

    Unfortunately this supply chain type of attack looks the most likely to affect small businesses. in 2023 a well known IP phone solution provider suffered a supply chain attack as well.

    These attacks are considered likely and as such companies need to be vetting their supply chain as well as their own IT systems. You can read more about here: New cyber security training packages launched to manage… – NCSC.GOV.UK

    What does the Cyber Insurance policy cover?

    It is important that you know how important your organisation’s systems and data are to operations, so that an appropriate level of cover can be set before you purchase.

    Make sure you understand in detail what the policy covers, and what is excluded. For example, some policies will not cover payments lost through business e-mail compromise or fraud.

    Cyber-attacks are evolving all the time, and you might fall victim to a new type that may not have existed when the policy was taken out. You’ll need to check with your supplier if you’d be covered if affected by a new type of cyber-attack.

    Other questions worth asking:

    • Does the cyber insurance policy you are looking for cover claims for compensation by third parties in the event of a cyber-attack? Or if personal data is compromised as a result of breach within your organisation (for example, if a customer’s personal data is lost).

    • What are the limits of the policy, and whether they are appropriate for your organisation.

    • What services the insurer provides in the immediate response time of an incident, to help recovery and improve resilience? If the worst happens, you want to ensure that your organisation can continue to trade and learn from what happened, and adapt to be better positioned going forward.

    How can IQ In IT help with Cyber Security Insurance?

    For all our clients we will automatically ensure your business security passes the Cyber Essentials accreditation, by evaluating, recommending and implementing the various requirements.

    Should you wish to take the CE Plus accreditation, we can consult on that too, working with you or directly with auditors to become and remain compliant.

    Even if you don’t want a certification, we will fully evaluate your infrastructure, software, backups and procedures to give you the confidence that your data and reputation are safe. Email us via our email or call us on 0330 1224 420

    Questions: [email protected] 

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    Continue reading:

    Cyber Essentials – IQ in IT

    What’s Changing in the Cybersecurity Insurance Market?

    Protecting Your Printers from Cybercrime Is a Must

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