While the adoption of the Internet has created amazing gains in communications and productivity, by now most business people are aware that it has also brought new liabilities. The digital age of global interconnectedness brings opportunities that could previously only be imagined, but these newly realised strengths can also be the source of potentially disastrous vulnerabilities. We’ve seen plenty of examples of even the biggest names in the IT industry themselves fall prey to cyber criminals, showing that even the highest levels of technical expertise are not 100% safe. To help meet the challenge of cyber crime in the 21st Century, the insurance industry now offers cyber protection insurance so that businesses can take advantage of the benefits of the Internet without fear that it will be the cause of their ultimate ruin.
Since Internet technology emerged from the obscurity of government defence and university departments into the commercial world, the innovation unleashed was extraordinary and breath-taking. Few people if anyone could envisage where it would take us, and no one can really predict where it will go from here.
From the very beginning however, there has been a dark-side to the technology; the proliferation of what is known as cyber-crime. In the same time that online entrepreneurs have been innovating and changing how the world does business, so has the cunningness and sophistication of criminals, who can be orchestrating their nefarious activities anonymously from anywhere in the world.
While violent crime across the developed world has been generally in decline, cyber-crime has been steadily increasing. The incentives are easy to understand when perpetrating crimes in the physical space poses enormous risks of detection and capture when compared to online criminal activity with potentially far greater rewards.
The threats to business from cyber-crime can come from anywhere in the world, either from individuals or highly organised groups made of people from various locations.
Here is a short list of common cyber-threats:
The estimated cost of cybercrime worldwide exceeded $600 billion USD in 2017. According to McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
These costs can include:
A Cyber Protection policy will provide you with comprehensive cover to help you overcome potential cyber-attack and data breaches that you will inevitably face. Taking preventative measures to the extent that is possible makes sense and can help in the defence of your business, but no network is impenetrable, so it is vital to limit your liability from cyber threats.
If the above doesn’t get your attention, the following might, as from Feb 22, 2018 businesses are obligated to comply with the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, which imposes a set of specific requirements on you in the event personal information is compromised.
This can include very substantial fines You can face fines up to $1.8m for organisations and up to $360k for individuals if you fail to comply.
Contact us now on 03 9686 0688 to learn how you can benefit from Cyber Protection Insurance.