SME? Don’t assume you’re safe from cyber crime

What could surprise you however is that it isn’t just global conglomerates that find themselves compromised, and small businesses can fall victim of a cyberattack. Emerging cyber risk and GDPR requirements are complexities that are pushing SMEs to the top of their agenda. Cyber criminal are increasingly targeting not just big companies, but small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as charities. Just in the UK, nearly half of the businesses have fallen victim of cyberattacks or security breaches in the last year, according to the 2018 Cyber Security Breaches Survey, and the average cost of a cyber security breach for a micro or small-size business can be up to £2,310.

What does the future hold?

Technology is moving forward at a rate that the law cannot always keep track of, and with every technological breakthrough a new form of cyber-crime is likely to be close behind. Plus with the introduction of GDPR this year, organisations can now face fines of up to 4% of annual global turnover, or €20m, whichever is greater, if they fail to secure their data properly. For businesses, now is the time to ensure you have a robust cyber security system in place and an adequate cyber insurance policy to help protect you when a breach occurs.

The aftermath of a breach can also cause issues for businesses, as the recovery period can impact their ability to operate and result in customer delays. In terms of prevention, this report recommends that businesses involve and educate employees at all levels in the business. In fact, cyberattacks might likely to use information stolen from employees who unwittingly give it away (e.g. installing new applications without IT approval, using personal social media for personal reasons or using their personal mobile devices for work).
Small businesses can include intrusion detection and ongoing monitoring on all critical networks in an effort to improve security online. Some easy-implement measures could be encouraging staff to regularly change passwords and don’t settle for easy-to-remember passwords or design a protocol to ensure personal and business data/information is always secure, investing in security and backups or staying up-to-date with all the security systems.

Cyber insurance is more important than ever

Internet-facing organisations are at risk of cyber-attack. Even the most robust security systems might fail to prevent a cyber-attack, as the majority of cyber-attacks are automated and indiscriminate, exploiting human mistakes and vulnerabilities, rather than targeting specific organisations. Companies aren’t facing if they can be attacked, but when they’ll be attacked. This is why having a comprehensive cyber insurance policy is one of the ways to help safeguard your business.

Across all businesses, the costs that a cyber breach can cause are often underestimated. Businesses might assume that either it is unlikely to happen to them or that if it does, the costs will be insignificant when in fact the opposite is often the case. When it comes to cyber security, while it is better to be proactive, increasingly intelligent approaches from cyber criminals’ mean that adequate cyber insurance is more essential than ever before.

If you’re interested in finding out more about cyber insurance or getting a quote then please call Intasure 0844 963 2132 to find out more.

*The opinions and views expressed in the above articles are those of the author only and are for guidance purposes only. The authors disclaim any liability for reliance upon those opinions and would encourage readers to rely upon more than one source before making a decision based on the information.