Technology & Telecommunications – Cyber Insurance

Unless you currently purchase Cyber Insurance you are exposed to an ever-increasing risk that could potentially cost your company and your clients’ companies thousands of euros in investigation costs, notification costs, fines, not to mention your reputation!

Cyber-crime is the world’s fastest growing criminal activity, estimated to cost businesses in Ireland more than €200 million annually. Cyber Breach Notifications in Ireland increased from approximately 60 in 2009 to almost 1,600 in 2012. Any business with a network and access to the Internet is a target for Cyber criminals.

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At Pembroke Insurances, we offer advice and cover about cyber protection. We provide first and third-party cyber coverage to address a broad range of exposures including security breaches, mistakes and unauthorised employee acts, virus attacks, hacking, identity theft or private information loss and infringing or disparaging content.

The simple fact of the matter is that virus checkers, security passwords etc. will not deter the professional hacker. Almost daily we read about companies that have been hacked, some of the major multinationals. The result is embarrassment and loss of reputation which can’t be avoided, but at least if there is proper telecoms insurance in place, the further threat to the continuing existence of the business is eliminated.

An example of data breaches and the costs when broken down per claim over the past 12 months:

  • data breach by human error – €137 per data record
  • data breaches as a result of system glitch – €142 per data record
  • data breaches from hackers & insiders – €170 per data record

When you multiply up by the number of customers, it works out expensive!

The perfect example of a recent cyber-attack was the recent Electric Ireland phishing scam. 8000 Irish businesses were affected by this scam where their staff unknowingly clicked on the link in the email. This phishing email was so authentic looking most spam filters didn’t quarantine it.

At Pembroke, we specialise in arranging tech insurance in the Technology and Telecommunications sectors, from Start-ups to PLC’s. Our experienced team have years of experience in this niche area so understand the risks involved in a way that other general insurance brokers won’t.

Cyber Liability Insurance Claims Examples

Here is an example of a cyber liability insurance claim. An Irish based company that operates loyalty schemes on behalf of third party companies was targeted in a data breach which affected up to 1.5 million people. Credit card details of over 376,000 people were stolen, including those approximately 70,000 Supervalu Getaway customers and over 8,000 AXA Leisure Break customers.

An accountancy firm undertook tax consultancy work for its clients. An unsecured laptop belonging to a partner was lost including details of all client audit and tax information. The firm was threatened by the culprits to publish data online unless a ransom of €250,000 was paid.

If a retailer is solely depended on sales coming from online and suffers a loss of income due to web hosting problems, having the correct cover for this issue will give you peace of mind. If at a hosting centre their IT equipment failed, this could be detrimental to your enterprise.

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