Why Every Business Needs Cyber Insurance

Today every business faces the possibility of being compromised by cyberattacks, such as from hacking, extortion, data breach, phishing scams and others. Especially with work from home becoming so widespread due to the pandemic, businesses are more exposed than ever before.

In the event of an attack, a business must bear the cost of restoring its systems, compensating those whose data has been compromised, paying fines and providing remedial services. The possibility of being sued by individuals and stakeholders cannot be ruled out either.

This article explains the basics of insurance for cyber threats and why every business needs it. To learn more, speak to the IT consulting services team at NUMENTIS.

What Are Cyber Insurance Policies?

Dedicated cyber insurance policies are designed for the unique risks associated with cyberattack. General policies cover businesses for common attacks while comprehensive policies cover specific cybercrimes and particularly sensitive information. An insurance policy doesn’t just provide coverage for business loss, but also the costs associated with data breach disclosures and remedial steps. Optionally, policies can also provide for detailed incident response.

Why Every Business Should Insure Against Cyberattack

Insurance coverage for cyberattacks can compensate/cover:

• Data and security breach remediation and notification expenses
• Monitoring services and recordkeeping
• Costs of complying with disclosure requirements under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
• Public relations expenses to manage damage to the business’s reputation
• Data breach forensic investigation
• Computer program and electronic data restoration expenses
• Extortion payments
• Business interruption for income the business may lose due to an interruption in services
• Subrogation in the event of a lawsuit

Insurance coverage for cyber risks is a new and rapidly evolving field. Insurance companies are continually updating and improving insurance products to meet new types of threats and regulatory compliance.

In the event of cyberattack, an insurance company will assess the breach and damage to determine if the policy is triggered. Policies include exclusions too, so not every breach will be covered. For example, if an employee is defrauded by an imposter into transferring company funds into a fake bank account, that may not be covered by the insurance policy.

Make sure the specific threats your business faces are covered by the policy. Speak to IT professional services before signing a policy.

Disclosure Requirements Under PIPEDA

In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), 2018, requires businesses to disclose data breaches if certain conditions are met. Under the Act, breaches involving personal information ‘that pose a real risk of significant harm to individuals’ must be disclosed to law enforcement.

There is a significant regulatory cost associated with this; businesses may also have to pay regulatory fines and provide internet monitoring and remedial services to those who have been affected. Insurance can insulate a business from many of these costs.

Discuss Insurance with IT Consulting Services in Oakville

Insurance for cyber threats requires the business to comply with industry standards, network security, disaster planning and other requirements. Talk to our IT professional services team in Oakville about the preparation required before getting cyber insurance.

Source: https://numentis.com/every-business-needs-cyber-insurance/

What Is the Cost of a Cyberattack?

While this article will look at the cost – your loss as a business from a cyberattack – we will start by asking how much does it cost a cybercriminal to mount an attack? According to Deloitte, a cyberattack can be launched for as little as $34 and yield returns up to $25,000. More sophisticated attacks can cost nearly $4,000 and net returns in the millions.

The real cost of cybercrime is borne by the business or individual that suffers it. Keep reading to understand the monetary consequences of becoming victim to cybercrime and what the best cyberattack protections for your company are.

Calculating the Cost of a Cyberattack

To calculate how much a cyberattack could cost you, consider losses/cost of remediation under each of the heads below:

• Data and security breach remediation and notification expenses
• Monitoring services and recordkeeping
• Complying with disclosure requirements under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
• Public relations expenses to manage damage to the business’s reputation
• Data breach forensic investigation
• Computer program and electronic data restoration expenses
• Extortion payments
• Business interruption for income the business may lose due to an interruption in services

What is the Cost of a Cyberattack

Accenture released some of the most damning figures on the cost to business per cyberattack.

$13 million – cost of cybercrime

$4 million – cost of business disruption

$5.9 million – cost of information loss

For small and mid-sized businesses that kind of loss can affect the integrity of the business itself; reputational harm can drastically lower its survivability from an attack. It is why active IT support in Toronto is vitally important to address security breaches as soon as possible.

Changing Nature of Cyberattack

Just as the nature of business has changed so has the nature of attacks. The types and means of attack have changed to adapt to the changing nature of the target and the effectiveness of the attack. Cyberattack protections have evolved similarly.

Where direct profit was the motive in the late ‘90s and ‘00s, information has become the primary target today. It’s why attacks now focus on information theft, manipulation, and hijacking. Just look at ‘ransomware’ and ‘cryptojacking’, two of the fastest-growing cybercrimes in the world, notorious for their high rate of success (businesses choose to pay because of a fear of loss of information).

But “people-based attacks have increased the most”, reports Accenture, as social engineering yields some of the highest success rates. As our IT support in Toronto puts it succinctly, “It is easier to ask for a password than hack it”.  The global trend of remote work (work from home) has made socially engineered attacks targeting employees more effective. Reduced internal communication and greater reliance on electronic requests make targets more likely to trust a fraudulent email or caller.

Dynamic IT Solutions in Toronto for Evolving Cyberattack Protections

NUMENTIS designs IT solutions in Toronto with security in mind. We ensure our clients meet industry standards for security and comply with security best practices. Speak to a representative to find out how we can help you secure your business.

Source: https://numentis.com/what-is-the-cost-of-a-cyberattack/

How to Keep Your Business Up to Date with Ever-Changing Operational Technologies

Technology is changing at a frantic pace and organizations face a crunch trying to keep up with cycles of new operational technologies. The plethora of platforms, cloud computing, AI and IoT integration create a situation of competing priorities. How does a business react to that? Should it allocate an increasingly larger slice of the budget for IT adoption? According to ZDNET, 82% of the IT budget is already consumed maintaining existing systems.

Most businesses in Mississauga are unable to respond to the evolution of IT because their resources are so heavily tied up in legacy systems. Continue reading to find out how a managed IT services provider (MSP) helps organizations stay up to date with the tide of new technologies.

Is your business ready for long-term remote work? Find out how NUMENTIS is helping start-up, small, and mid-sized businesses transition to the ‘new normal’.

Why Organizations Need to Stay on Top of the Technology Curve

• Not falling into the legacy systems spiral
• Better operations streamlining
• Improved customer service
• Maintain advantage over competition
• Cost savings

Benefits of Working with a Managed IT Services Provider

Relying on managed IT services for small businesses has many benefits. In addition to helping incorporate new systems, having an MSP onboard allows the business owner to focus on the core business. An IT consulting & services company can also provide market intelligence – something that is simply not available in-house. For keeping up with the ever-changing tech, here is how a managed IT services for small business can help.

Free up capacity – With some or all IT tasks offloaded to an MSP the organization frees up bandwidth to expand its IT horizons.

Forward planning – The MSP is aware of the direction technology is heading and can chart out a technology roadmap.

Remove barriers to change – Building buy-in and overcoming resistance to change are some of the biggest hurdles an MSP can reduce/remove through knowledge sharing.

Expert team – A qualified, certified, and experienced team makes transitions a lot smoother and reduces the potential for downtime enormously.

Risk reduced – Failure is a huge risk when new technologies are incorporated in-house because there simply isn’t the knowledge base or expertise to troubleshoot every problem.

Predictable budgets – With contract-based IT implementation, organizations are able to plan budgets far in advance.

Economies of scale – Businesses reap the benefits of savings in hardware, software and license procurement.

Scalable infrastructure – MSPs have the ability and capacity to scale up the IT infrastructure as internal demand rises.

Rapid deployment – With a team of engineers working onsite and offsite, technologies are deployed far more rapidly than if an understaffed in-house IT team was to do it.

Security and compliance – The MSP’s team will be certified to install and maintain systems in accordance with industry security standards and compliance requirements in contracts.

Find the Right Managed IT Services Provider in Mississauga

How do you find the right MSP? Consider an MSP with a strong reputation, a track record of innovation, and one that offers complete IT consulting & services. At NUMENTIS we are committed to empowering your organization with the latest operational technologies, analytics and business intelligence. Speak to a representative about or flexible SLAs and our exceptional customer support.

Source: https://numentis.com/keep-business-date-ever-changing-operational-technologies/