Are You Insured Against Cyber-Attacks?

With a number of high-profile data breaches in the past year, businesses should be making sure their networks are adequately protected. Last year, Sony experienced one of the largest data breaches in the past few years, with over 100 million user accounts being compromised. Sony’s business insurance did not cover cyber-attacks, which in turn left the company with significant losses to recover.

Last year it was estimated that cyber-crime cost the global economy $388 billion. The UK has had significant problems with cyber-crime, with businesses losing approximately £21.4 billion to hackers.

There are a number of ways in which businesses can lose money to cyber-attacks, often costing millions of pounds of damage.

Denial of service

Denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks will shut down a network in order to disrupt business, often causing massive delays in delivery and payments. These attacks can result in significant loss of finances and reputation.

Extortion

Some hackers will manage to take hold of a network or stop it from functioning properly. They will then extort businesses by offering to give back functionality.

Data theft

Many businesses have data and resources which are highly protected. Cyber-attacks can strip companies of this information, which in turn can be extremely damaging to reputation and profits.

Get covered

These are but a few ways a business can fall victim to hackers. As these cases become more and more common, public liability and business insurance policies are now beginning to offer cyber-attack cover, something that was previously excluded.

The quality of cover offered is variable, with many policies stating that cover will only be given if there is physical loss or damage. Cyber-attacks, by their very nature, are non-physical for the most part, making these claims highly disputable.

Speak to more reputable insurers or one of the many specialist insurers if you are concerned about the various electronic risks to your business. Their policies will cover most eventualities, providing that businesses are adequately protected and follow proper protocol.

As technology evolves, hackers are becoming increasingly more powerful, with their attacks costing larger and larger amounts of money to corporations. Being properly protected is imperative. This doesn’t just apply to large multinationals; small businesses should really consider having insurance to cover themselves as their networks are generally less protected. If you’re considering cover for your company, you may find some highly affordable options for your business.