Computers are everywhere: homes, business, libraries, schools, even in your pocket, if you own a smart phone. Computers are used for entertainment, business operations, navigation, government administration, heating, and cooling: the list goes on and on. As ubiquitous as computers have become, criminals are increasingly attempting to extort money or use our personal information to create a duplicate of our identity, destroying our finances through impersonation.
Rise in Computer Crime
Computer crime is not decreasing:
- In 2020, 300 million people were affected by data breaches: 80% of the nation’s population.
- 91% of organizations experienced at least one damaging cyber attack over the past two years. 60% had two or more over the past two years.
- 1 in 4 businesses experienced a cyber event in 2020.
- Ransomware attacks (where villains lock computer until a ransom is paid for release) exceeded one million dollars in 2018: in 2020, it was more than $30 million!
As a result of the rise in computer crime, 78% of risk managers now purchase some level of cyber insurance, up from 34% in 2011.
Business Cyber Protection
As the majority of cyber criminals are overseas where law enforcement may not be able to reach. Business owners might evaluate their internal business cyber protection. Even well-defended companies experience cyber losses. What can a business owner do?
First and foremost, each business owner should have a robust cyber security plan in place. One that is continually updated as new weapons are wielded by criminals.
To begin with:
Maintain A Robust Perimeter Defense: Many networked computer systems are protected by a firewall: think of a firewall as the castle wall. The wall keeps invaders out allowing entry only through a protected gate. The firewall is absolutely the first line of defense. However, be concerned if it is the only line of defense. If the walls are breached, invaders may be inside with complete access to customer data and individual computers.
Change Passwords every 30 days: over 55% of unauthorized access is from “spoofing” a legitimate user. Criminals have become sophisticated in their use of social media and publicly available information to induce employees to click on links installing malware software on your systems. Such malware lies hidden tracking every keyboard click, including the capture of passwords, customer social security numbers and birthdates and a lot more. By changing passwords, it reduces a criminal’s ability to impersonate your employees.
Install Anti-virus Security Solutions: Install products such as Norton or McAfee on all computers and keep the software up to date. In 2020, 360,000 new malicious files were detected each day. Current virus software will capture and isolate the software for review and deletion, before inflicting damage.
Restrict Browsing: Every company uses internet browsing for business purposes. However, criminals will upload malware to appear as a seemingly innocent picture or video (cute kittens, romping puppies!) which, when clicked upon, is designed to infect the computer without the user knowledge, then seek and infect other computers on your network.
Minimizing Risk of Cyber Attacks
Six of ten small to medium sized business (under $250 million annual revenue) have no cyber insurance protection. Business owners should consider the cost of losing all business data or paying a ransom for locked out computers and the impact these situations represent. Consider investing in risk management protection by expanding coverage such as:
- Breach Response Costs
- Cyber Extortion/Ransom
- Business/Dependent Business Interruption
- Systems Failure/Dependent
- Systems Failure Digital Asset Recovery
- Cyber Crime (Social Engineering, Funds Transfer Fraud)
- Bricking
Speak to your Aspen Insurance industry expert to discuss possible options expanding your cyber security insurance and general liability insurance.
Aspen Insurance Agency is in Denver, CO servicing clients nationwide. We are a family run business working with multiple insurance carriers to offer our customers the coverage they need at the lowest possible cost. We offer a wide range of personal, commercial, and professional insurance to residential and commercial customers enabling the cheapest rates available. Call to speak to one of our insurance professionals and see how painless insurance shopping can be.