I think we all subconsciously know that our perception of risk often defies logic. We worry about dying in a plane crash but jump in our cars every day without a care in the world! Similarly, when it comes to protecting our business interests, we wouldn’t dream of not covering our premises for fire (an exceedingly rare occurrence) but many people are still not covering their cyber risk despite being aware their network is under almost daily attack.

A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport survey for 2023 found that 32% of businesses had suffered from a Cyber attack or breach over the last 12 months. The most common form of attack is some kind of malware attack. Malware, short for Malicious software, comes in a variety of forms (Ransomware, spyware, worms, and viruses) but all are essentially code or content used by cybercriminals to steal data and damage computer systems, networks or devices. Successful malware attacks often result in IT outages, preventing your business from operating effectively. This interruption to business can have a big impact on customer service and cause reputational and financial loss. With ransomware, the cost to restore your system can be significant in addition to the damage to reputation when customer data is compromised.

The Benefits of Cyber Insurance

As well as mitigating the financial risks of a cyber-attack, there are a number of associated benefits from taking out cyber insurance. The process of applying for insurance itself encourages a review of existing protections which can only be a positive step. Prevention is always the best defence when it comes to cyber security and working with an insurer to ensure you have all sensible precautions in place will provide reassurance and should reduce your premiums.

Several of the most progressive insurers such as Aviva, have a cyber crisis management team to support you the instant you have a cyber problem. Speed is often of the essence when responding to a cyber attack and having a specialist team to guide you can make a huge difference on the impact on your business. Being the victim of a cyber attack can be enormously stressful – knowing you have experts on your side to take over in a crisis can provide real peace of mind.

So, do you think you need Cyber Insurance for your business?

We think Cyber insurance is the policy that most businesses know they should have but are often put off by the perceived time and hassle of getting the necessary information together. At Pelican, we have specialists from the world of IT who can make the process of applying for Cyber insurance simple and understandable. We can also make recommendations of straightforward steps you can take to improve your cyber resilience – great news whether you decide to insure or not!