Make Sure you Act on Cyber Advice says Insurance Expert

“Being given advice on your potential cyber risks is great - especially when you’re provided with free vouchers to do so - but it’s relatively worthless if you don’t act on that advice,” explains Kate Rhodes, Account Executive at S-Tech Insurance. “With the increasingly sophisticated methods that cyber criminals use, it’s extremely difficult to be 100% secure, so having a safety net in place is certainly recommended. Although the insurance industry has been notoriously slow in keeping up with technological developments, it seems they’ve finally hit the nail on the head with the cover that can be provided from a cyber-liability policy.” 

Last month Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey, launched a new voucher scheme designed to help SMEs combat the increasing cyber security risk that they are faced with.

Survey after survey finds that owners of small/medium sized businesses see themselves as less of a target than multinationals (66% of SMEs don’t consider their business to be vulnerable*) when it comes to cyber-attacks, yet during 2014 33% of small businesses suffered a cyber-attack from someone outside their business. This is a common misconception, partly due to the intense media focus when such a large scale hack occurs compared to the relative silence when the local, family-run business is targeted. 

“We certainly welcome this new initiative put forward by the Government, with £1m cyber security innovation vouchers being made available – up to £5,000 – for each business, while being overseen by the experts at Innovate UK” adds Kate.  

These vouchers can be put towards obtaining specialist advice to help boost a company’s cyber security, enabling businesses to better protect their intellectual property. Further information can be found on the Innovate UK website – https://vouchers.innovateuk.org/cyber-security

Kevin Baughan, Innovate UK’s Director of Technology and Innovation said:

“The UK’s economy is increasingly underpinned by digital infrastructure, so cyber security is now a critical component. The schemes announced today will give cyber-confidence for businesses and consumers and will help our digital economy to flourish. The UK now has the opportunity to become a world leader in cyber security, creating the jobs of tomorrow and driving productivity and growth.” 

Some of the key areas covered by a cyber-liability policy are:

Public Relations Advice: relating to the reputational damage of an incident.

Forensic Investigation: relating to the investigation and future prevention of a breach.

Notification: relating to the need to notify those whose personal data has been compromised

Data Protection Investigations and Fines: relating to defence costs of a regulatory investigation and fines you become legally liable to pay.

Extortion: relating to the ransom paid resulting from extortion by the hacker.

Business Interruption: relating to the loss of revenue resulting from unauthorised access, infection of a virus or a denial of service (DoS) attack. 

S-Tech Insurance Services Ltd, based in Cambridge, was founded in 1982 and is a large independent and specialist insurance broker with a team of over 70 professionals. It provides a full range of commercial, credit and personal insurance. 

For further information visit www.s-tech.co.uk

*statistics provided from a 2015 report by Gov.uk - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cyber-security-myths-putting-a-third-of-sme-revenue-at-risk