Is It Important To Have Insurance During A Cyber Attack?

Cyber threats have grown over recent years, as threat actors discover new and more complex ways to impact organisational networks and compromise sensitive data. The ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) Threat Landscape 2024 Report revealed that European businesses are facing an increasing wave of cyber incidents. 

This report showed that 80% of SMEs stated that cybersecurity issues would have a  serious negative impact on their business within a week of an incident and 57%  indicated that such issues could likely lead to bankruptcy or business closure. 

Cyber attacks, such as data breaches, often resulted in financial losses and the potential for reputational damage. Data breaches or leaks can occur through supply chain vulnerabilities or exposed networks. 

Understanding the nature of cyber incidents and the level of threat involved can help businesses to better prepare for an evolving cyber threat environment. Additionally, putting comprehensive and protective cyber insurance in place ensures your business will have safeguards to limit damage caused by a cyber attack. 

Contents

• What is a cyber attack?
• Is it important to have insurance during a cyber attack?
• How can a cyber attack affect your business?
• Protective cyber insurance with GasanMamo. 

What is a cyber attack?

A cyber attack is an action which has the underlying purpose of stealing, exposing or destroying data and other assets. Cyber attackers aim to achieve this by gaining unauthorised access to networks, devices or computer systems. 

The usual outcome sought by malicious actors is to gain a benefit from deliberately disrupting an organisation’s network. It’s important to note that cyber attacks hit businesses on a daily basis, so it’s necessary for enterprises to have adequate protections in place. 

Cyber attackers typically use a broad range of methods, such as:

System disruption

Networks and systems can be overloaded, causing downtime or a restriction in service. 

Data theft

Confidential information such as customer data, financial documentation or company records are stolen. 

Unauthorised access

Threat actors gain unsanctioned access to a business’s networks, files or systems. 

Data destruction

Through unauthorised access, a cyber attacker can alter or destroy a business’s data or confidential information for malicious purposes. 

This is not an exhaustive list, as threat actors are discovering new and innovative ways to hack into or disrupt organisations’ systems in order to gain criminal advantage. 

Is it important to have insurance during a cyber attack?

Having a cyber insurance policy helps businesses manage any financial losses that may occur due to a data breach or cyber attack. The protection from a cyber insurance policy could help cover an investigation into the incident, communication to customers or legal services.

Without a valid cyber insurance policy, an enterprise could be in a vulnerable position if threat actors decide to launch a cyber attack. This could result in the payment of a significant amount of money or a substantial portion of revenues to repair the damage from a cyber incident.  

There is also the angle of reputational damage to consider if you’re running a business. Customers who are affected by a data breach or cyber attack may feel reluctant to trust the company they have shared personal information with again. 

This can be challenging for a business that has suffered a cyber attack and lost some customer trust, which may impact their operations overall. An organisation’s reputation takes time to build, but can be quickly damaged if cyber incidents have a negative influence on its public image. 

How can a cyber attack affect your business?

Every attack and each threat group will have their individual characteristics, but it’s likely that if your business undergoes a cyber incident you may be impacted by:

1. Direct costs such as those related to remediation and finding cyber security experts to recover any stolen data or to secure your network. 
2. Indirect costs that stack up, including the costs associated with network, system or service downtime. 
3. Loss of customer confidence in your ability to keep personal information safe.
4. A reduction in sales due to impacted websites, restrictions on systems or a stall in operations as a result of an attack.
5. Legal liabilities for potential damages caused by a cyber attack.

For many enterprises, the extent of risk involved in a cyber attack could be considered to be high. That’s why the vast majority of businesses make sure they have appropriate cyber insurance in place. 

This helps them safeguard their confidential data and enables them to reassure customers or clients that their systems are reliable and secure. 

Protect your business with cyber insurance from GasanMamo

With years of experience in providing effective business insurance policies for all different types of organisations, GasanMamo is your partner of choice in cyber insurance cover. 

We offer cyber protection insurance as part of our Business Protect product range:

• Incident Response: provides any investigation and other necessary costs incurred as a result of a security breach.
• Data restoration: costs related to the recovery of data assets or to restore, input, configure or replace any data assets that have been corrupted, destroyed, erased, or damaged.
• Business Interruption: this covers a loss of business income and additional reasonable costs to maintain business operations following a security breach.

If your business needs the safeguard of an effective cyber protection insurance policy, why not contact us for more information?

You can get in touch for a chat with our friendly team of experts at GasanMamo if you have cyber insurance questions. Discover more details about our business insurance policies, including cyber protection insurance in our Business Insurance Section. 

GasanMamo Insurance is authorised under the Insurance Business Act and regulated by the MFSA.

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