How many times has your broker recommended Cyber Insurance and you’ve declined? How much is your online data worth to you?
Cyber Insurance is rapidly becoming an essential business cover. With most transactions, communications and accounting systems now managed via online channels, the impact of a cyber-attack on your business has moved from “low impact, low risk” to “critical impact, high risk”.
A case in point was a recent experience with one of our long-term clients in the lifting equipment industry. A medium-sized enterprise, with a loyal client base, they moved to electronic filing, online customer management and accounting system a few years ago.
At the time, the risk of cyber-attack was low. They still had hard copy client records and offline systems, they even had an IT provider managing backups but like many businesses, their reliance on computers increased year on year, and, on advice from their broker they took out a Cyber Insurance policy in 2020.
Fast forward 9 months later and that small investment in insurance has saved their business more than $100,000 and a lot of heartache!
On the first week of December 2020, the client was hacked and the company experienced a full shutdown of all computers, applications and emails.
Despite immediate action from their own IT company, we discovered their systems and virtual backups had been infected with ransomware and they were at risk of losing more than 18months of valuable business and client data. The ransom demand to restore access was for 3 bitcoins which, at the time, was the equivalent to $90,000 AUD.
Within four hours of the breach, we’d lodged a claim and their cyber insurer, Dual immediately appointed an Incident Manager and a UK based forensic IT team to investigate and determine the next steps.
It was a stressful time following the breach and our client, the insurer and IT providers did everything in their power to minimise the damage and recover the data.
On the 23 Dec 2020, the forensic team negotiated with the hackers who were demanding up to $70K USD ransom and secured the release of the files. The Dual Cyber insurance policy also covered the cost of the Incident Manager, Forensic IT team and the cost of rediverting emails, reinstating Microsoft access and moving files.
It has taken just over a month to settle the claim with the initial restoration of online communications, setting up a temporary data warehouse, investigation of the encryption, negotiate of the ransom and restoration of data.
How would you manage this situation in your business? Could you afford to pay the ransom demand, IT consultants and other out of pocket expenses?
Cyber Insurance is no longer an “innovative new product” or an optional extra. It’s a must have insurance for any business operating in an online environment where data and customer records are stored and managed.
For more information and a quote for Cyber Insurance get in contact with the team at Allsafe on 1300 908 404
