Cybersecurity Insurance - Do I need it?

Cybersecurity Insurance - Do I need it?

In today's digital age, cyber threats are a very real and present danger for businesses of all sizes. From data breaches to ransomware attacks, cyber-attacks can cause significant damage to a company's finances, reputation, and overall operations. As such, many businesses are now considering whether they need cyber insurance to protect themselves against these risks.

Here are some factors to consider when deciding whether cyber insurance is right for your company:

The nature of your business: Some businesses are more vulnerable to cyber attacks than others. For example, a company that stores sensitive customer data or processes a large volume of financial transactions may be at a higher risk of a cyber attack than a business that doesn't deal with sensitive information. If your company falls into a high-risk category, cyber insurance may be particularly important.

The cost of a cyber attack: Even a relatively small cyber attack can be costly to a business in terms of lost revenue, legal fees, and reputational damage. If a cyber attack were to occur, would your company have the financial resources to cover these costs? Cyber insurance can help mitigate these costs and provide financial protection in the event of a cyber attack.

Compliance requirements: Many industries are subject to regulatory requirements regarding data privacy and security. Cyber insurance can help ensure that your company meets these requirements and avoids costly fines and penalties.

Peace of mind: Even if your company has robust cybersecurity measures in place, there is no guarantee that a cyber attack won't occur. Cyber insurance can provide peace of mind and a sense of security knowing that your company is protected in the event of an attack.

Blackguard recently engaged a number of insurance companies and underwriters to obtain a checklist of what’s actually required from the client before cyber insurance is given. We’ve boiled them down to the following:

• Do you have a Notifiable Data Breach plan in place and otherwise comply with The Privacy Act 1988?
• Do you have a Data Protection/Privacy policy?
• Do you have firewalls protecting your own and customer/client data?
• Do you comply with your relevant PCI DSS obligations?
• Do you outsource the handling of any Personally Identifiable Information?
• Do you use up-to date antivirus/spyware and malware software?
• Are all mission/business critical systems and data information assets backed up and stored at another location?
• Has an independent party completed an audit of your system/data security?
• Do you have written data security policies and procedures communicated to all employees, and do employees receive annual security awareness training?
• Are you aware of any claims, circumstances, privacy breaches, viruses, DoS / DDoS, or hacking incidents which have impacted, or could adversely impact your business?
• Do you have a dedicated person responsible for your IT infrastructure, data security and privacy?
• Do you have a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and/or Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place and has this been tested in the last 18 months?
• Does your network include contingency / redundancy / resilience of any description, to mitigate system interruptions or failures (such as mirrored infrastructure, failover mechanisms, warm or hot replicated sites or similar)?
• Do you control / limit / monitor your employees’ ability to remove data or information from your network / office (examples include USB drive security)?
• Does your website use Web Apps?
• Do you use monitored Intrusion Detection or Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS)?
• Are you aware of any evidence of network intrusion or vulnerabilities highlighted in an IT Security audit or Penetration test which have not yet been resolved?
• Do you hold any of the following records: Drivers Licenses, Medicare, TFNs, Bank Account Details, Confidential 3rd Party Secrets, Passports, Government IDs, Customer Information (First, Surnames, Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, etc.)
• Have you had any unforeseen down time to your website or IT network of more than 12 hours?
• Do you authenticate inbound email?
• Does all remote access to your network and corporate email require multifactor authentication (MFA)?
• Do you scan and filter inbound emails for malicious content (e.g., executable files)?
• Do you train end users against phishing and social engineering threats via ongoing campaigns and assessments?
• Have you deployed an endpoint detection and response (EDR) tool that covers 100% of Servers and Endpoints?
• Do you allow local administrator rights on local workstations?
• Does your incident response plan (IRP) specifically address ransomware scenarios? workstations?
• Are you entrusted with or in control of funds from a 3rd party, or do you provide any of the following services for others?

As you can see, there’s a lot to look out for. Looking to harden your network’s cybersecurity or just feeling overwhelmed by it all?

Reach out today @ [email protected] or find out about us at https://www.blackguard.com.au