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Cyber Insurance – What is it, and Why is it Important With the New WFH Culture

Amidst a rapidly evolving global cyber landscape because of COVID-19, the WFH (work from home) and virtual meetings culture is here to stay.

With more and more professionals having to access sensitive work documents at home, here’s some information on the potential problems you may face, as well as what you can do to safeguard yourself or your employees – and we’re not talking about McAfee.

What Are Some Of The Common Cyber Security Problems?

Data Breach

data breach is an incident where information is stolen or taken by a hacker, without the knowledge or authorization of the system’s owner. A small company or large organization may suffer a data breach.

Stolen data may involve sensitive, proprietary, or confidential information such as credit card numbers, customer data, trade secrets, or matters of national security.

Without sufficient firewall and cyber security in place at home, your data protection can be severely compromised, even via VPN.

It is important to note that in the event of a breach, both the data owner and data intermediary (IT provider, even if outsourced) are responsible!

RansomWare

In December 1989, the world was introduced to the first ever ransomware – and 30 years later ransomware attacks are now at crisis levels. It is essentially a malware attack that locks down your machines AND network, deeming them unusable – unless you pay a ransom fee for its restoration.

If you have your company files regularly backed up externally or on the cloud, congratulations! However, aside from the income loss while fixing the issue, there are still operation costs to restoring your machines and data, as well as potential breach of privacy law, if the hacker releases clients’ private information stored on your systems.

Unauthorised Leaks

E-commerce platforms are all the rage right now – but what if you are faced with competitor sabotage, or an error in the encryption coding? In an accidental leak, you may find your clients’ login credentials, personal information and even credit card details released online.

Besides the operational costs, an IT Forensic Expert may be required by law to determine the reasonings, and to mitigate this unauthorised disclosure of data.

Negligence

In the case of an employee negligence(e.g. loss of portal device with client’s data), it is important for your brand’s Reputation Protection, with the services of a Public Relations consultancy on how to mitigate damages from this event.

FYI: PDPA Obligations

To ensure your compliance with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), which will help to limit your liability in case of a breach, here are the Do’s and Don’ts:

You may visit Cyber Security Agency website for more info.

How Cyber Insurance Can Protect You and Your Business

As mentioned above, there are many issues arising from a cyber attack or human error, such as:

  • Business interruption/loss of income from restoration of network and operations,
  • Privacy breach costs such as lawsuits from customers and crisis communications with a PR agency,
  • Ransomware payment,
  • Cyber forensic support to access affected systems and regulatory requirements,
  • Programmes/digital assets restoration costs,
  • Legal fees for infringement of IP rights in case of a leak, etc.

Any of these damages can be a potential deathblow to most businesses, let alone SMEs. It is as simple as being insured with Cyber Insurance to cover all the risks above, and help put your mind at ease for business continuity.

Have a scenario that plagues you as a main concern? Currently there are already different levels of plans available in the market, and at AWG Insurance, we will be delighted to share more information, and help assess the level of cyber coverage you need.

Do feel free to contact us at 6294 6688 or leave a message below!

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