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View allSmall to medium-sized enterprises are estimated to account for 96% of all businesses in Australia and approximately 40% of all cyber crime targets. You wouldn’t gamble on these odds so you shouldn’t risk your business future by leaving yourself open to attack. Here are the 3 keys to understanding how you could become a cyber crime victim and what to do to avoid it.
Your most important risk exposures are your people, your management and your resources for responding to a cyber attack. Fortunately they are all within your ability to manage and control.
In a survey of more than 1000 Australian businesses of all sizes nearly half of employee respondents admitted they have put the organisations they work for at risk of online attacks through the following unsafe activities.
Opening an attachment or a link in an email from an unknown contact
Phishing is the name for email scams that trick the recipient into clicking on a link or attachment, asking them to provide or confirm their personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, or to pay a fake account. Recent research shows that one in 728 emails in Australia is a malicious email, as reported by My Business. In 2018 email scams cost local businesses more than $60 million in lost revenue and downtime, according to Scamwatch.
Downloading apps, software, videos or games without their employers’ permission or sharing viral emails from unknown sources
Malware can be hidden in any of these downloads or messages, giving cyber criminals access to the system and the information on the network, enabling everything from denial of service ransom demands to identity theft or draining your bank accounts.
Not actioning technical updates
Both business owners and their employees are guilty of this: simply overlooking or postponing responding to computer notifications and update notices on their computers, software, apps or devices. Regular computer updates are vital as they contain security features to guard against recent viruses and attacks. This process is also referred to as patching and it’s as easy as clicking on a button.
Not understanding how to protect yourself
Canvassing Australian small business owners reveals the vast majority (87%) think using antivirus software alone means they're safe from cyber attacks. Using anti-virus software is only one part of a cyber security program and can’t by itself guarantee protection. You should also back up the information stored in your systems to a separate storage device and disconnect it once this is done. This precaution will help you get up and running again much faster after an attack or outage.
Not having a cyber attack response plan
Indications are that less than half of Australian businesses have a data breach response plan. For small businesses that don’t have in-house IT expertise this is a recipe for disaster. If you don’t know how to react or defend your systems and information the damage you sustain will be more serious.
Not understanding your reporting obligations
A survey by Chubb Australia suggests that only half of Australian small to medium sized businesses are aware of their cyber reporting obligations. Failure to comply with requirements can attract hefty fines, and you may put others – your clients, customers and business partners – at risk.
You have nothing to fall back on if you do get hacked
Only a quarter of Australian small businesses are believed to have cyber risk insurance. Given that they represent 40%+ of local businesses that get attacked this leaves them wide open to the potentially substantial losses incurred if their systems are hacked: downtime, data loss and legal cases or fines.
You don’t understand the complexity involved
If you don’t understand the extent of how a cyber attack could damage your business it’s difficult for you to effectively protect yourself against either the immediate effects or wider fallout.
Having standalone cyber insurance means you can respond to a cyber attack quickly, calling in the professionals in the knowledge that the cost of their services, and the associated expenses involved in restoration, remediation and reputational damage limitation will be covered.
Could you identify all the exposures involved in identifying your risk exposures across all of your operations, computer network and devices? Obtaining a complete analysis and recommendations from a cyber insurance specialist who understands your business helps assure you of more complete protection if you are targeted by cyber criminals or your data is compromised through employee error.
Do I need cyber-liability insurance?
Most SMEs severely underestimate cyber security vulnerabilities
Cyber attacks worsening among Australian businesses, costing economy $1 billion a year
Scams cost Australians half a billion dollars
Gallagher provides insurance, risk management and benefits consulting services for clients in response to both known and unknown risk exposures. When providing analysis and recommendations regarding potential insurance coverage, potential claims and/or operational strategy in response to national emergencies (including health crises), we do so from an insurance and/or risk management perspective, and offer broad information about risk mitigation, loss control strategy and potential claim exposures. We have prepared this commentary and other news alerts for general information purposes only and the material is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, legal or client-specific risk management advice. General insurance descriptions contained herein do not include complete insurance policy definitions, terms and/or conditions, and should not be relied on for coverage interpretation. The information may not include current governmental or insurance developments, is provided without knowledge of the individual recipient’s industry or specific business or coverage circumstances, and in no way reflects or promises to provide insurance coverage outcomes that only insurance carriers’ control.
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