Data theft is becoming an increasingly serious problem in our digitally connected world.
In January this year, Cybernews reported the ‘mother of all data breaches’, where a staggering 12 terabytes of user data – spanning over 26 billion records – were leaked from several platforms including LinkedIn and Twitter. This data breach, thought to be the biggest ever, puts billions of people at risk for phishing schemes, targeted cyberattacks, and identity theft due to unauthorized access to personal information.
Cyber security: is your business protected?
Data Breaches for Businesses
Beyond the risks to an individual though, data leaks also affect businesses, putting them at risk of financial or reputational damage – or both. The global average cost of a data breach to businesses is $4.35 million, and in the US, the average cost is over $9.44 million. The 2023 IBM Data Breach Report found that an alarming 83% of organisations experienced more than one data breach during 2022. As outlined in a 2023 article from Harvard Business Review on cybersecurity and digital privacy, there are many potentially devastating consequences of a data leak to businesses, including:
- Increased expenses to the business in terms of covering costs for things like ransom payments, legal and audit fees
- More company resources are used to contain and remedy the breach, which can affect company productivity
- Lower stock price due to reduced consumer confidence in the organisation
- Credit rating downgrades for the business, impacting their ability and cost to secure financing
So how do you know if your business has been caught in a data leak? One way to check is to enter your work email address into this personal data leak checker at https://cybernews.com/personal-data-leak-check/.
Email Protection
If you find your email address has been compromised – or even if it hasn’t – it’s worth thinking about putting preemptive strategies in place now to prevent future potential data leaks. One preventative strategy is to take out cyber liability cover, which can help protect you if your data is lost, stolen or corrupted. It also helps protect you financially, by covering costs you may incur as a result of legal proceedings.
Coverage Gaps Revealed
However, as with any insurance offering, cyber insurance products vary greatly – and many of them contain exclusions for things such as wrongful acts that may have happened before coverage was taken out, a loss of portable devices, third-party breaches and more.
In their 2022 report on the global state of cyber insurance, cyber security company Arctic Wolf surveyed 500 IT and corporate executives in North America, Europe and South Africa to gain insights into how they are managing cyber security risk. The report found that most survey respondents are not fully covered for all the costs of a breach, particularly the costs of business losses. Within South Africa, only 30% of respondents reported that their insurance would cover everything related to a cyber crime. So, while many organisations may look to their insurance company to cover their losses in the event of a cyber crime, they may not all be adequately protected.
Tailored Solutions
As an insurance intermediary, we’re able to provide you with the best cyber cover tailored to your specific cyber security needs. This could include cover for cyber extortion and malware (viruses, ransomware, or publishing of stolen data), denial of service or downstream attacks, hacking, physical theft and loss (both devices and physical hard copy data), threats posted by third party access into a client environment and more.
Want to cover your business and ensure your cybersecurity? Speak to one of our insurance advisors today. https://cfsg.co.za/contact-us/
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