Cybercrime - no silver bullets

More than a third of Kiwis have experienced a cyber event in the past 12 months. If you haven’t got a cyber strategy in place, talk to one of our brokers. We’re here to help make sure you have the right insurance solutions to protect your business.

2020 is the year of the hacker. New Zealand had a whopping 42 percent rise in online crime this year, and the figures keep rising.

More than a third of Kiwis have experienced a cyber event in the past 12 months. Our 'she'll be right mate’ attitude needs to change. Cybercrime will not decrease with time.

Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the Covid-19 disruption and the changes in how we’re working. More than half of Kiwi SMEs (58 percent) have introduced new ways of working since the March/ April lockdown, opening up potential security gaps.

High profile companies like Air New Zealand partner Travelex, Fisher & Paykel Appliances, Toll Group, Garmin, Canon, Honda, BlueScope Steel, Lion, transport giant Toll Group, Twitter, MetService and most recently even the NZX, are just some of the organisations to have been targeted by cyber criminals this year. And 2020 is not over yet.

In a report issued by the Institute of Directors (IoD) on the top five issues for directors in 2020, Cyber attacks made number three on the list. Alarmingly though, a recent study carried out by Perceptive and Porter Novelli of 1000 small to medium sized businesses found that over half of those surveyed had no resource when it came to cyber security, and furthermore, it was low on their priority list.

This is set to change however when the new Privacy Act 2020 comes into effect on 1 December. The new Act will impact on how all New Zealand businesses operate in our increasingly digital world.

The new Act requires mandatory data breach reporting if it’s reasonable to believe that the breach would cause serious harm to an individual. So if you’re engaging with a service provider to hold your clients’ personal data, for example a cloud-based CRM system, you remain responsible for the security and use of that personal information. If a Cyber breach were to occur, you would be held liable.

This should be a priority concern for all Kiwi businesses.

While there is no silver bullet for cybercrime, Cyber Insurance can be one of your best lines of defence. Ensuring business continuity and safeguarding your business from Business Interruption will enable you to return to the same financial position you were in before a Cyber event.

The benefits of Cyber Insurance will depend on the type of policy you take out but can include:
- Access to a dedicated and experienced team of experts if an attack occurs
- Protection from loss where you are legally liable to others
- Cover for your financial loss if your business is interrupted due to a Cyber event

What else can you do in the war against Cybercrime?
• Always run up-to-date software versions including anti-virus software.
• As extreme as it may sound, consider quarantining all inbound emails with attachments
• Separate your data - make sure you have layers between your systems. If your customer data is behind a wall it’s safer. Think of it as your bank vault.
• Get the basics sorted. Make sure your passwords are strong and long. Think about things from a criminal’s perspective and try hacking back into your own business to identify any vulnerabilities.

Make security part of your company culture and build security awareness
• Be cautious about opening emails, especially on your mobile phone.
• Don’t reply to unexpected emails without checking who they have been sent from and beware of clicking on links.
• Think twice before opening an attachment. Always check the email has been sent by a legitimate source. Often the email address is almost exactly the same but includes a few different characters, for example john.smith@1rothbury.co.ru instead of john.smith@rothbury.co.nz
• Watch out for phishing messages – some phishing emails contain relevant and targeted information and may even include a prior email you have sent in order to get you to respond.

The experts tell us “it’s not if, but when, we become the target of cybercrime!”

If you haven’t got a cyber strategy in place, talk to one of our brokers. We’re here to help make sure you have the right insurance solutions to protect your business.

Click here now to get an obligation free Insurance review from one of our brokers today.


Sources:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda...
https://itbrief.co.nz/story/re...
NortonLifeLock Cyber Safety Insights Report
World Economic Forum