CYBER RISKS – WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW DO THEY AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS?

As businesses become more and more connected, and place a greater emphasis on technology, they become increasingly at risk from threats like cyber crime and data breaches.

Cyber risks can come in a variety of forms and are more common than you might think – and not just for big businesses. Figures provided by the Government show that while 81% of large companies experienced an online security breach in 2014, this number was still as high as 60% for smaller businesses. The Information Security Breaches Survey 2015 places these figures for the following year even higher, at 90% for large companies and 74% for small ones. This means that companies of all shapes and sizes are at risk – large companies because of the information they posses and smaller ones because they often do not have the resources to effectively combat cyber crime.

Cyber risks can come in the form of a deliberate attack on your business by hackers to steal sensitive information or disrupt you business but could also come from spam, malware or even employee error. If your business relies on online trade but your website is compromised by hackers, you could lose a significant amount of income until functionality is restored. Or if your computer contracts a virus you could lose important data about your customers and employee and pay to get your computer repaired or even replaced.

Not all cyber risks are malicious though. If an employee makes a mistake and accidently publishes confidential information, you could still find yourself in a difficult situation and could face expensive legal action from anyone whose personal information you have unwittingly shared.

The best way to protect against cyber attacks is to prevent them in the first place – but sometimes that is not possible. If the first line of your defence is breached, Cyber Insurance is designed to help you manage and control the impact – and get back to business as usual.

At Affinity Brokers, we want to make sure that you’re not exposed to undue risk by ensuring you have access to the best covers available and because of this we have teamed with AIG to provide you with CyberEdge, their comprehensive cyber risk management solution.

CyberEdge combines insurance protection and risk management tools with access to independent experts. It can help businesses safeguard against sensitive breaches, computer hacking, dumpster diving, computer viruses, employee sabotage or error, pilferage of information, and identity theft.

If you experience cyber difficulties and need to make a claim, your CyberEdge policy will spring into action, offering you a fast and effective response to help get your business back on its feet. A response may typically include 24/7 access to global service providers, a breach coach to navigate a complex regulatory environment and IT specialists to initiate investigation, containment, resolution and remediation so your business can move forward. This comes in addition to crisis management to mitigate reputational damage, identity and credit protection for affected data subjects and adjusters to help calculate the net income lost through a network interruption.

Not every business is the same and neither is every risk. It’s because of this that CyberEdge offer you a selection of modules to provide the right cover for your business. These include management, security and privacy cover, network business interruption, electronic data incident, cyber extortion cover, event management and outsourced service provider cover.

To find out more about CyberEdge and how it can help protect your business, give us a call on 0141 221 9344 or email enquiries@affinitybrokers.co.uk today to get a quote.