As businesses evolve towards entirely digital platforms and grow more technology-reliant, the risks of suffering business loss due to computer system, mobile device or network problems increase also. Simultaneously, our sensitive data has never been more at risk. All of these problems can lead to revenue-loss, regulative fines, damage to reputation and significant business interruption.

Ensuring your business is adequately covered by your insurance policy for a cyber-attack is crucial. Due to viruses or other harmful software that could put you out of business for hours, days or potentially interrupt your business activity for months, you need to ensure all cyber risks to your business are considered. Here’s one example why…

Collection #1 data breach

Experts have warned that a recent and extreme data breach – touted as the most significant ever – was just the tip of the iceberg. This news is unsettling, considering the compilation of sensitive information known as Collection #1 is roughly 87GB in size.

The contents were published to the internet, allowing anyone to download a trove of hundreds of millions of email addresses and passwords. This stolen information has the potential to keep hackers busy for the next few years to come.

However, researchers maintain there are a host of similar hauls already working their way around the web, many of which are far more significant than the one deemed newsworthy.

Cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs stated that he had interviewed an unnamed cybercriminal, selling the collection. According to the person, Collection #1 is just a tiny part of a numbered series, which, in total, dwarfs the publicised breach tenfold.

Unfortunately, those hacks were just the beginning, and further email addresses and logins are likely to be discovered. Jake Moore, a cybersecurity specialist at ESET, stated;

“This is a start of something far more significant than anything we have seen before,”. Moore went onto add, “Hackers are becoming even more sophisticated and, hopefully, this is a massive wake-up call to anyone with an email address”.

How the stolen data is used

Hackers commonly purchase data breaches like Collection #1 to be used in a variety of cyberattacks; mainly for ‘credential stuffing’. This activity involves automatically plugging the logins into a wide-ranging set of services, in the hope of locating websites where people have re-used the stolen emails and passwords.

In a nutshell

As businesses become ever more reliant on technology, the risks from suffering a loss related to problems with a computer system, mobile device or network continue to grow, as does the reliance and value of our sensitive data. This can lead to a loss of revenue, a regulatory fine damage to your business reputation and considerable business interruption.

Risk Review

Fortunately, the Trust Insurance Group have considered these risks and can offer a full review of your unique requirements.

Now partnered with PGI Cyber, we also offer full support in the event of a data breach, whether electronic or otherwise. Our support includes legal advice, forensic investigations, notifying customers or regulators, and offering assistance such as credit monitoring to affected customers.

If you’d like any assistance or expert information on how to protect your organisation from the likelihood of a cyber security incident, speak to our experts on 01476 434050.