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Protecting Your Business From Hackers & Cyber Threats

Business Insurance Cyber Insurance

Protecting Your Business in our online world

Remember the good ol' days when old school local criminals would break into your business during the night to steal your goods and occasionally the Police would catch them? Whilst that still happens, increasingly today's businesses are also attacked in broad daylight by cyber theft and malicious damage from criminals anywhere in the world and they never get caught.

I hear you say "but - but I have anti-virus software, back up regularly and have a good IT guy/company."

Do deadlocks, padlocks, gates, CCTV and alarms stop criminals from breaking into your business every time? Do smoke alarms and fire extinguishers help to put out all fires? We all know the answer is "No" and yet we expect that our current IT arrangements will keep us safe, but the reality is they won't, not all the time. Why? Because human error is the number one reason why hackers are successful.

There is a real risk from cybercrime

Put simply you are at risk if your business uses the internet.

"But it won't happen to me." Small businesses account for 58% of all cybercrimes. 22% of small to medium sized businesses that are breached never recover and cease trading! Cybercrime is a $1bn + industry with 177,519 scams reported in 2018. It's not a matter of if but when your online footprint will be tested by a hacker with:

Email phishing, Malware, Ransomware, Denial of Service, Phreaking, Watering Hole Attack, Social Engineering to name but a few!

These are the sobering stats. There are 2,065,523 small businesses in Australia according to Google and 177,519 scams were reported in 2018 according to the ACCC Scamwatch statistics so the simple math is roughly 8.5% of businesses are breached every year and 22% of them never recover. Can you afford to be one of the 177,519?

Examples of cyber claims from small and medium sized businesses

Claim Example 1: A hairdresser's VoIP phone system was hacked (Phreaking) to make calls to premium numbers totaling $30,000.

Claim Example 2: A hacker impersonated a client of the Insured (Social Engineering) requesting future payments be made to a new bank account which resulted in a $41,000 payment being made into the fraudulent account.

What can a cyber breach cost?

Many thousands, from the IT costs to fix the damage done to the network, credit monitoring costs, extortion/ransom demand, forensic costs, legal costs, regulatory fines, crisis management expenses, public relations to protect your hard earned reputation with your customers and suppliers, third party costs and loss of profits whilst trading has ceased.

Management Liability Insurance

Management Liability insurance is designed to provide protection to both the business and its directors or officers for claims of wrongful acts in the management of the business.

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Business Insurance

A business insurance pack can provide cover for your business premises and contents, against loss, damage, theft or financial loss from an insured interruption to the business.

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Business Package

Purchase up to six products under one Business Insurance Package.

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Investing in a cyber insurance policy buys access to a 24/7/365 breach response team which includes an experienced project manager, IT Forensic Investigators, Forensic Accounts and specialist Lawyers. Due to their expertise in this area they can respond in the most efficient way which minimizes downtime.

Can your IT provider drop everything to respond 24/7 and know what other experts to engage if required?

What does cyber insurance Cost?

A basic cyber policy can cost as little as $375 per year. We have clients who have suffered cyber breaches without insurance and it has cost thousands to remedy.

Cyber insurance is a smart business decision

To protect against the financial and reputation damage that a cyber breach can cause the cost of cyber insurance is relatively insignificant compared to the potential downside.

Cyber Insurance is now a must have discussion to accompany other exposures such as Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, Management Liability and Business Interruption.

Geelong Insurance Brokers have been protecting local businesses large and small since 1993. We partner with our business clients to inform and educate them about the unseen risk exposures that can cripple their business if not properly insured.

Geelong Insurance Brokers have you covered Speak to our experienced team today for an obligation free quote and free industry risk assessment.

cyber security

General Advice Warning: This advice is general and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and your personal circumstances. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

All information above has been provided by the author.

Peter Kelly, Grace Insurance, ABN 30 655 404 505