Specialist cyber insurance offers specific protections against criminal attack - cyber crime - as well as data breaches.
Also known as cyber liability insurance, it can provide an important defence against often sizeable costs.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) reported Government statistics which in 2014 suggested that some 60 percent of small business had suffered a data breach. The average cost of a breach ranged from £65,00 to £115,000.
The figure were even more startling for large corporations, 81 percent of whom suffered breaches with average costs rising to up to £1.15m.
Cyber crime costs
In 2020, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau reported that 86% of fraud is cyber-enabled. The same year at the Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association (PIMFA) Financial Crime Conference the City of London Police Commissioner noted that such crimes are now "now a lot easier than robbing a bank and the rewards are far greater." He said that three-quarters of reported fraud crimes were cyber enabled.
Cyber crime never seems to be far from the headlines.
In late 2019 a major foreign exchange company had to shut down all its IT systems for around a fortnight following a ransomware attack. In March two major UK retailers found their loyalty card systems under cyber attack.
Whilst its the big names that hit the news, smaller businesses face daily risks from phishing, scams and other forms of cyber attack.
The ABI - and RBIG - particularly recommends taking out specialist cyber insurance if your business trades through websites, processes debit and credit card transactions or holds client data.
With many of our clients increasingly reliant upon IT and e-trading platforms, we have developed particular expertise in cyber insurance.
As such we can offer expert advice to assist you in determining the nature and value of cover your business requires.
Naturally, the personal service for which RBIG is renowned, means we will be pleased to design a bespoke cyber insurance policy to offer your business truly tailor-made protection.
We can arrange a wide range of cyber and data protection insurance cover options.
These include: