Digitalisation and Cyber liability

I was asked recently are there any claim patterns that we are seeing in the industry relating to business and the Covid-19 pandemic and what insight and guidance that I could provide to avoid other businesses failing into a similar trap.
There is no doubting that increased digitalisation, perhaps accelerated even more by remote working and lockdowns has seen an increase in cyber crime.
I’m willing to bet that almost all of us have at some point received some form of phishing text or email and this is only going to increase in time. Regretfully the easier it becomes for us to take advantage of digital innovation in business, the easier it is for cyber criminals to impact our world.
Cyber liability is still widely ignored by the business community, especially in the SME market, usually because the business believes that it will never happen to them.
Many companies I talk with maintain that they will not be targeted by cyber criminals; however the truth of the matter is that they are not just targeting “anyone”, but “everyone”!
Imagine if you will a thief wandering through a car-park testing door handles until he finds that one unlocked vehicle and then imagine how much easier and less risky it is to do this via some clever computing from the comfort of your own bedroom!
The fact is that if you use digital innovation and connect to the outside world via the internet then you are already at risk and the cost of adding an extra layer of disaster recovery is negligible when compared with the impact not only on your business but also your reputation.
Big business is also starting to look at its supply chain and “weed-out” the weakest links, couple that with the fact that big business is a far more lucrative target for the cyber criminals and that you could find your business affected just by association.
Whilst I’ll stop short of trying the hard-sell, if you do have a database that holds personal data then you should be putting cyber liability at the top of your agenda.
It should never be considered a replacement for good IT housekeeping and data security, it will be a very valuable asset for protecting your reputation and swift disaster recovery meaning you get to carry-on with your business whilst someone else manages the fall-out.
There are ever more insurers with new and innovative policies and schemes, ranging from complete “managed” disaster recovery to a single monetary award, there are even some that will cover fines issued by the Information Commissioners office (ICO) for a breach under General data protection rules (GDPR).
Ashbourne Insurance is a family run, general, independent insurance broker established over 40-years, authorised and regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority.