LOCK IT OR LOSE OUT - CYBER SECURITY
Cyber-crime prevention advice from Compass Insurance...
Parks are far from immune when it comes to cyber security breaches and attacks. If something like this happened to you and your business, what would you do? Could you handle it internally? Or would you need help? If so, where and who would you turn to for support? If you can’t immediately answer these questions, you may be unprepared to deal with a cybercrime incident. As almost half of UK businesses (46%) have reported a cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months, there’s unfortunately no doubt that park businesses like yours could see their own IT systems compromised in the future.
CRIPPLING EFFECT
The damage a cyber breach/attack could inflict on your park business cannot be overstated. They can cripple operations by interrupting normal services and it can be very expensive and time consuming to put things right. The average annual cost to small and micro businesses which lost data or assets after breaches is £8,170. For medium to large businesses, this average rises to £13,400. Losing information or being held to ransom is bad enough, but on top of this, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) could levy a fine of up to 4% of your turnover against you if you’re found to have lost customer information. Additional issues, such as the bad PR that can come with the loss of other people’s personal information means there will be any number of things you’ll need to manage quickly and skilfully if you fall victim to this kind of attack. As cyber criminals evolve and hone their techniques all the time it’s a huge challenge to consistently prevent breaches and attacks. Keeping up with cyber crime ‘trends’, learning how to protect your IT systems and training ALL staff to be vigilant is key. Nevertheless, the sad fact of the matter is that it’s near impossible to make an IT system 100% safe from the determined cybercriminal.
REMAIN VIGILANT
This is just one of the reasons why more and more businesses are turning to bespoke cyber insurance cover as their ‘second layer’ of protection. You may well already be insured against some cyber risks, though this is more likely to be through your general commercial insurance policy rather than a cyber-specific one. A comparison table above gives an indication of the likely differences between the two different types of cover. As can be seen from the table, a cyber policy will take care of a lot of the things that most of us wouldn’t really know where to start. Technical support, forensic analysis expertise and help with communications are particularly important aspects of specialist cyber cover, as these benefits would help to get your business back on its feet in the quickest and best possible way. The financial assistance will also be of real value. If you don’t have enough money in the bank to fund a recovery and/ or or the specialist skills to respond to an attack and any corresponding reputational damage your business could literally find itself on the edge – or worse. An insurance account executive should be able to run through the levels of cover provided in your existing policies and highlight any areas of cover that you might need to consider.
What suits your business will depend not just on size, but relative risk. However, a cyber-specific policy would be especially useful for parks which:
• hold sensitive customer details such as names and addresses or banking information
• rely heavily on IT systems and websites to conduct their business
• process payment card information as a matter of course
GOOD NEWS
Add-on cyber insurance cover is widely available, but as with all insurance, quality can vary. From a cost perspective, it would be sensible for parks to seek out add on products that complement their existing cover. The good news is that there is a lot of support out there, including a wealth of free guidance to assist you in risk assessing and managing their IT security.
Areas to consider will include:
• Keeping IT inventories
• Keeping up-to-date records on IT systems access
• Conducting regular IT Health Check
• Keeping on top of IT management – who is responsible for supervising and checking all the above?
Remember holiday / sickness / maternity cover. The BH&HPA also provides a wealth of specialist information and guidance to park business. Do contact them for more information.
Compass Insurance
Tel. 0344 274 0276
www.compassparks.co.uk
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