Cyber security is growing risk in Australia, particularly for small businesses. According to a 2019 report, cyber criminals have shifted their focus, targeting more small businesses, resulting in a 424% increase in breaches from 2017.
Cybercrime, or computer crime, is a catch all term when computers and the internet are used to break the law. This could include identity theft, fraud, scams and denial of service attacks.
What can you do to protect your small business from cyber risk?
Cyber security is all about protecting your technology, information and data (especially data related to privacy) from accidental or illicit access, corruption, theft or damage. But the good news is that there are many things you can do to help manage your risks.
4 things you can do to reduce your cyber risk
- Education – According to Chubb’s 2019 Cyber Risk Survey, only 31% of employees get annual training on cyber security. Don’t take for granted that your team knows how to spot a phishing scam or knows not to open attachments unless they are really sure it’s legit (especially when they can appear to come from someone they know but perhaps the email address is a bit off).
- Passwords – Aside from not using the same (obvious) password for everything, you can also enable two factor authentication where possible to add a strong extra layer to your systems.
- Antivirus – Keep your antivirus suite up to date and seek expert advice as to which solution is appropriate for your needs. You can also refer to independent antivirus assessments for more information about brands and software.
- Backups – If your business relies on important files and emails, you need to ensure you’ve got a back up plan. A good practice is to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule, with three copies of your data, keep two of them saved on different storage media, with one of them located offsite.
Do I need cyber insurance?
Cyber liability insurance is basically the safety net as incidents can and do happen even if you follow all of the steps above. Cyber insurance (according to Chubb) is designed to cover:
- Business interruption loss due to a network security failure or attack, human erros or programming errors
- Data loss and restoration including decontamination and recovery
- Incident response and investigation costs, supported by a 24/7 multilingual incident reporting hotline and on-demand vendors
- Delay, disruption, and acceleration costs from a business interruption event
- Crisis communications and reputational mitigation expenses
- Liability arising from failure to maintain confidentiality of data
- Liability arising from unauthorised use of your network
- Network or data extortion / blackmail (where insurable)
- Online media liability
- Regulatory investigations expenses
We can talk to you about whether/what kind of cyber insurance solution might be right for your business – contact us or give us a call on (03) 5382 0344 for a free, no obligation chat and quotation.
General advice warning
The information above may be regarded as general advice. That is, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information.
Accordingly, you should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. Where the information relates to a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product.