Cyber Risks businesses often underestimate
Cyber Risks are rising and evolving, so it's possible to believe you have considered the variables without being fully aware of new and sophisticated threats....
Facing Cyber Risks?
Cyber Insurance
is vital
Cyber Insurance
Does my business need cyber insurance?
The essence of insurance is the exchange of an unlikely and unquantifiable risk for a small known cost. We understand that most of the perils we insure against are highly unlikely to ever happen, fire, theft, explosion etc. In contrast, the scale, quantity and sophistication of cyber criminals means most businesses are under almost constant threat of some form of cyber event.
Indeed, the Government’s most recent 2024 official survey outlines the extent of exposure that businesses face, over 50% have faced a cyber breach or cyber attack event with the number rising to over 70% for medium to large organisations!
(source: UK Gov, October 2024).
Dealing with the consequences of cyber-crime can be stressful, damaging and expensive. Cyber insurance can ease the financial pain and help your business successfully navigate a cyber-attack.
What are the main Cyber threats?
The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving, striving to outfox the cyber defence tools at our disposal. The most common attacks are as follows;
Malware (often referred to as viruses) can often sit on your system undetected for long periods of time collecting data.
Ransomware is a form of Malware that locks down your system or steals data. The cybercriminals then demand a substantial ransom to “unlock” your IT system or return sensitive data.
Social engineering is on the face of it less sophisticated but in practice equally damaging. We are all used to seeing the phishing emails and fake calls attempting to trick us into revealing passwords or sensitive data. AI tools are making these increasingly hard to spot and the human element means that even with robust staff training it is hard to be 100% immune. Indeed, we have had three clients in the last 12 months who have fallen victim and inadvertently transferred funds.
How can cyber insurance help?
As with all insurance, the key with Cyber is a policy and wording appropriate to your cyber risk and appetite for that risk. Do you hold sensitive data? Are your IT systems critical to day-to-day operations and customer service? On a basic level cyber insurance can cover the financial implications of an attack. This may include;
- Covering transfer of funds scams.
- Business interruption.
- Paying a ransom.
- Covering the cost of retrieving data.
- Compensation for reputational damage.
- Liability if your loss of data causes damages to a third party.
In addition to the financial cover, some cyber policies also offer excellent support in the event of an attack. For example, Aviva has a 24/7 incident response team with the necessary IT security, legal and PR specialists to help get your business up and running again and manage any ransom negotiations.
Are there any requirements before I take out a cyber policy?
Whilst having a good cyber insurance policy in place should provide a degree of peace of mind it obviously cannot replace your efforts to have robust cyber security in place. Insurers will expect you to have taken all sensible precautions and to that end would be happy to supply risk assessments and guidance on best practice. We can help here – indeed we often liaise directly with your IT provider to save you time and hassle.
Why work with us?
We are a BIBA Accredited Cyber Insurance Broker.
A number of our team members have come from the world of IT and have a good grasp of the threats and solutions in this area. We also have strong relationships with the key insurers in cyber. Finally, of course, you would receive the legendary friendly and exceptional service from our fabulous team!
Cyber Expertise
Industry Approved
One of the UK’s first businesses to be cyber approved by the British Insurance Brokers Association
Cyber Insurance FAQs
Does Cyber Insurance cover against ransomware?
Almost without exception that’s a yes! (always check the wording) Even better, most of our insurers include emergency response that kicks into action as soon as an event occurs. This relieves you of the stress involved negotiating a resolution with the attackers and ensures to back to business as usual asap.
Does Cyber insurance cover a phishing attack?
As above. It’s the most common form of cyber breach so it is critical this is covered.
Does Cyber insurance cover business interruption?
This is more variable between policies but is normally standard with dedicated cyber cover. With business interruption the t & c’s become important and working with your broker to fully understand what you would receive in any given circumstance is essential.
That said, we believe it is a very important and valuable aspect of cyber insurance as disruption often represents the biggest loss associated with an attack.
Do I need cyber insurance if I have an MSP?
A good quality MSP should mean you are starting from a strong position in terms of cyber resilience. Most breaches come from some human vulnerability however and you can never be totally confident. As such a good cyber insurance policy gives you the back up should your first defence be breached.
Having effective cyber protection in place will be reflected positively in insurance premiums.
Do I need MFA (Multi factor authorisation) to get Cyber cover?
Cyber insurers will look for appropriate measures and protections based on the risks you face. The larger the business, the amount of data you hold and the more sensitive the nature of that data the more robust the protection an insurer will expect.
Before making presentations to insurers, we will always conduct an audit with you, your internal IT team and external IT partners. If there are gaps in your defences, you can then consider responding to these before we approach insurers.
Is cyber insurance included in a commercial combined insurance policy?
Whilst rarely included as standard, Cyber insurance is increasingly offered as an add on to general combined policies. Be warned however that levels of cover are generally low and limitations can be quite restrictive.
This may be absolutely fine if you are in a low risk sector and do not hold sensitive data. If that isn’t you, then it is definitely worth considering what extra cover a specific cyber policy could provide balanced against the extra cost.
Does Cyber Insurance cover social engineering?
Almost always yes and this is critical as many incidents have some form of social engineering at their heart.
What is social engineering in the context of cyber-crime?
In many cyber-crimes it is not a technical frailty that has been exploited but someone being tricked into giving access to a system, transferring money or divulging confidential information. Like most scams they use a combination of trust (through impersonation), urgency (leaving limited time for verification and reflection) and fear (that there will be negative consequences to not acting).
How can I best protect our business from social engineering attacks?
| Staff training | Helping staff recognise suspicious approaches and how to report them. |
| Access | In IT speak applying Principle of least privilege (PolP). Basically all staff should have the minimum access required to perform their role. |
| Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) | Applying MFA makes stolen passwords far less useful to the cyber criminals. |
| Strong email security | Having an effective filtering tool can substantially reduce the volume of malicious emails reaching employees. |
| Payment process | Implement a strong verification process for changing bank details and dealing with urgent payment requests. |
| Incident response plan | Have a robust plan and ensure all staff know who and how to report an incident and that speed is key. |
Do I need cyber insurance if I have Cyber Essentials?
Cyber essentials is a great benchmark to ensure you have all sensible protections in place. It also includes an element of cyber insurance. This insurance element is a great start for smaller businesses but it does have some significant limitations – the biggest of these is perhaps that cyber fraud is not usually covered.
Videos On this topic
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Protecting your business from a cyber attack
Creating a culture of cybersecurity in your business is one key way to bolstering your cyber defences. However, one common misconception is that if you experience an attack, your IT team will be able to fix the problem. Watch this explainer video to find out more…
The impact of a cyber attack on your business
To protect your business from cyber attacks, it’s vital you get the basics right. As cyber criminals become more adept, your cybersecurity defences must be up to date and tested regularly. Watch this explainer video to find out more…
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