We all think we are invincible, that a terrible thing like being hacked or some sort of cyber-attack is never going to happen to us. The Optus hack has us all rethinking that!
Business owners have moved from thinking “It won’t happen to us, we’re too small” and instead are asking “Are we protected?”, “What happens if we are hacked?”. This is where Cyber Insurance comes in.
We know that technology will continue to evolve at a rapid rate. As will the skills and tactics of the people and organisations who undertake cyber-attacks!
So losing access to emails, payment systems or customer data stolen by hackers is a possibility and, unfortunately, will start to occur more frequently.
Read on for more information about the 3 reasons why you need cyber insurance.
- Cyber Insurance provides financial reassurance
Hacking, cyber crime and cyber interruptions come in many forms. Just say your payment system is compromised and you can’t transact business for a period of time. Or possibly you lose access to the IT systems that enable you to operate effectively, like processing orders. You could also face extortion attempts to recover access. Lost revenue has a significant impact on any business’s bottom line, and could impact your ability to continue to operate.
Cyber insurance covers financial loss and expenses that businesses may suffer because of a cyber-crime. This financial security ensures your business is resilient should a cyber incident occur.
- Cyber Insurance helps you respond to a privacy breach
With a cyber-incident, there’s often a privacy breach – i.e., private, or confidential information and data is exposed.
Responding to a privacy breach includes many actions, and is complex. A business can quickly incur significant costs and chew up available internal resources when responding to this type of breach.
Cyber Insurance can support a business to cover actions like:
- incident response and accessing 24/7 emergency support
- notifying third parties
- performing computer forensics
- liability from third party claims
- recovery of data
- regulatory fines.
- Cyber Insurance is the right step in protecting your reputation
Should your business experience a cyber event, you want to be on the front foot. Informing authorities and those who may be impacted as soon as possible. The way you respond to an event will impact your short and long term reputation.
To minimise any impact you’ll likely want to engage a Crisis Communication, PR or marketing expert. These professionals have the experience that can help you quickly and effectively manage the messages to customers and the media, your reputation and advise on changes to your customer experience. All activities that can minimise damage to both your short and long-term reputation.
Having comprehensive Cyber Insurance means that you can afford to access professional support.
Insurance is about prevention too!
There’s plenty more than 3 reasons why you need cyber insurance but at Oracle Group, we know that you’d prefer prevention.
We are also strong believers in prevention. That’s why we work with a range of IT businesses to look at how our clients can mitigate their cyber risks. As part of our risk reduction approach we support clients to help create a robust Cyber risk plan that looks at prevention and then ensuring the right protection is in place if something occurs.
If your business is unfortunate enough to experience a cyber-attack, good insurance is vital to get you back up and running quickly.