Are your clients protected?
Cyber risks have long been a concern for business owners, but data breaches during COVID-19 have reached alarming levels, making it clear that every company is vulnerable. Now, MacNeill Group offers a comparative admitted and non-admitted super fast cyber option. Here’s what’s happening — and how it affects your clients.
Many companies that were preparing to meet rising cyber risks over the next 20 years found themselves in a situation of heightened vulnerability almost overnight as online dependency and risk increased with the need to quickly deploy solutions to support remote workers.
Aware that remote work is the new normal and that online transactions of all kinds are on the rise, cybercriminals are exploiting the vulnerability of at-home and cloud-based networks.
COVID-19 cyber risk stats — a wake up call
Stats — from sources like the FBI, the United Nations and the World Health Organization — paint a vivid picture of cyber security dangers that are a reality for every business in the wake of COVID-19:
- 80 percent of companies have seen an increase in cyber attacks.
- Attacks targeting home-based workers rose five-fold during the lockdown.
- According to the FBI there have been 4,000 cyber attacks a day during the pandemic — that’s a 400 percent increase.
- Cloud-based attacks rose 630 percent in the first four months of 2020.
- Visits to hacker websites and forums rose 66 percent in March alone.
- Phishing attempts are up by 600 percent since the onset of the virus.
What this means for your clients
Cyber attacks have become an almost daily event, not just affecting big businesses. In fact, 43 percent of attacks target small businesses, who are now equally vulnerable to a range of potential damages, including:
Exposed Data
At-home networks and outsourced services are much more vulnerable to breaches and attacks on personal, business and financial data.
Financial Losses
Businesses driven by real-time data may see interruptions in the process chain that inevitably impact profits.
Service Interruptions
Companies that provide services that run on digital technology face outages that may result in service interruption, loss of customers or worse.
Reputational Risks
Any incident that results in data loss will compromise a company’s reputation and may impact financial capital and/or shareholder value.
Regulatory Fines
Governments are becoming increasingly involved in cybersecurity and may impose fines on companies that face data breaches.
Are your clients protected?
Cyber insurance can give them peace of mind. It covers business liability from a data breach involving sensitive customer information. Your clients may not realize most Professional Liability, General Liability and Error & Omissions policies don’t cover cyber risks.
MacNeill Group® offers new competitive options for this important line of business. And, it’s simple to get an online quote for stand-alone policies or as additional protection for your Professional Liability, General Liability or E&O policies.
Because, unfortunately, it’s really no longer a matter of if a business will experience some kind of cyber incident — it’s a matter of when.
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