Why every business should consider cyber risk

If you are a digital business – one with systems, networks or data – then you’ll encounter cyber risk. Every business has different cyber risk, but almost every business has them. We’ve teamed up with our friends at Superscript to bring you all the info you need to know about the potential cyber risks to your business and how cyber insurance can help provide cover for certain threats that may occur.

When you think of cyber risk, you’ll probably think of big corporates or tech companies being hacked for their customers’ sensitive information or having ransomware downloaded so they’re denied access to their systems.

But according to some recent government data, 38% of small businesses suffered a cyber breach or attack in the last year, with the average cost of an attack over £8k.1

With this in mind, it’s important for every business to assess their cyber risks and work towards dealing with any cracks and holes in their systems to avoid a potential future attack.

What cyber risks do businesses commonly face?

As the world becomes more digitally savvy, the rate and sophistication of cyber attacks has become increasingly advanced, with hackers finding progressively intelligent ways to infiltrate systems.

While every business will have different types of cyber risk, there are common ways that hackers find their way into a business’ systems or ways in which a business could breach certain cyber laws and rights. These include:

• Data breaches or theft of data
• Breach of GDPR
• Denial-of-Service attack
• Third-party outages
• Malware
• Intellectual property infringement
• Phishing emails
• Extortion and ransomware
• Identity fraud

What does cyber insurance cover?

Experiencing a cyber attack or breach is stressful enough, but one thing that can really help is cyber insurance. It covers the risk that come with storing and handling data when running a business.

In essence, cyber insurance supports the ramifications of a cyber attack, including compensation, fines, legal and defence costs. This can include:

• Compensation to customers as a result of a data breach
• Damages and extortion payments
• Financial loss due to downtime or business interruption
• Legal costs to settle a hacking or ransomware claim
• Compensation for fines and expenses as the result of a breach or failure to comply with GDPR or your privacy policy
• Financial losses caused by funds transfer fraud (social engineering), phone hacking, botnet attack and cryptojacking

Superscript’s cyber insurance offers access to a 24-hour breach response service, which provides you with legal, IT security and PR support, to help you deal with the incident swiftly and smoothly, which can really ease the stress of the situation.

5 tips for greater cyber security

While you can’t predict if and when a cyber attack will happen, there are plenty of things you can do to prevent one in the first place.

Here are our top 5 tips for creating stronger security for your systems:

1. Use a third-party password manager – a hacker can crack an 8-character password with numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters in just one hour. But remembering passwords for 50 different things is often a bane of one’s life. Password managers allow you to create super long and strong passwords that are then stored securely on one platform.
2. Carry out a risk assessment – looking at your business objectives and the systems you’re using will often indicate the types of cyber attacks that could potentially occur and the impact they could have. Once determined, you can decide where to implement security controls and safeguard your systems against those specific attacks.
3. Train employees – the best cybersecurity in the world is useless unless everyone in your business knows what to look out for. Training should include topics such as how to spot phishing emails and insecure websites, the role of human error in data breaches and what to do if there’s a suspected attack or breach.
4. Monitor vendor access – can you trust any supplier or client that you partner with to follow cybersecurity best practice? Establish how your data will be stored, what access controls they will have and the frequency of risk assessments.
5. Consider getting cyber insurance – if you suffer a financial loss as a result of a hack or breach, your cyber insurance should cover you. At Superscript, even before you’ve made a claim, the SuperScript team can put you in touch with their 24-hour breach response helpline, where you’ll get help from legal, IT and PR professionals who can help you respond to the incident.

Want to read up more on cyber security? We have two other articles that can help educate you on the subject:

• Cybersecurity: Why it’s important for your business
• Cybersecurity essentials: How to spot a scammer

At Cashplus, one of our core focuses is customer security and making sure their money is safe. The Cashplus Business Bank account comes with FSCS protection, 24/7 fraud monitoring and many more helpful features such as receipt capture, spending insights and accountancy software integration. Find out more about the Cashplus Business Bank account, where you can apply for an account in minutes and get an instant online decision. Our business customers can get access to great offers in the Cashplus Bank app and online banking, including Superscript business insurance with cyber cover.

¹ https://gosuperscript.com/business-insurance/cyber-liability-insurance/know-your-cyber-blind-spots/

This content was created on 1st August 2022

Please note, the content in this article has been provided by a 3rd party and is not guidance from Cashplus. Cashplus Bank make no representations or warranties of any kind, explicit or implied with respect to the contents of this article. Without limitation, Cashplus Bank specifically excludes and disclaims all express or implied warranties and conditions to the extent permitted by law, and any action taken using such content is strictly at the user’s risk.