How do I protect my business from a ransomware attack?

Alan Dainty, Cyber Risk Director at Thomas Miller Specialty, asks the question.

Every day hackers figure out new ways to break into websites and exploit vulnerabilities that companies and application vendors don't yet know about. Their goal may not always be financial, but a system breach will almost always lead to some kind of repercussion - be it the loss of information, a regulatory fine, or damage to your reputation. A recent report indicated the number of attacks worldwide in 2017 that exploited software vulnerabilities was now in excess of 700 million.

Recently reported incidents effecting majors in the marine and aviation industry demonstrate that any organisation can be vulnerable to Cyber Attack or failure of their IT systems.

If you are able to detect and contain the incident, the impact may be small, but if the outbreak is widespread, the effect on your business can be severe. It will almost certainly lead to significant business interruption, loss of income, reputational harm and expense to investigate and remediate the issue. This precludes the financial exposure should it be deemed necessary to pay ‎the ransom payment demanded.

Here at Thomas Miller Specialty's Cyber Unit in London the recent incidents have prompted a rise in level of enquiry for our Cyber Insurance product. Customers are keen to understand how our Cyber Insurance policy will help them respond when an incident occurs.

As a rough guide for buyers and brokers, for medium to large revenue clients with reasonably mature security provisions, premiums can be as low as US$ 30-50k. This investment is fast becoming a necessity for Company Boards of Directors keen to mitigate their risk exposure to WannaCry or Petya type threats from the modern cyber-criminal world.

But it's not all about insurance; Thomas Miller Specialty have relationships with specialist partners who can prepare you to respond to an incident. These also help protect your business from potential cyber threats by providing a full range of Cyber security resources from online staff awareness training and Cyber Essentials packages to ISO 27001 solutions.

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This insurance will be underwritten by Thomas Miller Specialty for and on behalf of Underwriters at Lloyd's of London.‎ We welcome your new enquiries.