Cyber Risks

After supposedly thwarting a cyber attack on Monday 11^th November 2019, the Labour Party suffered a second attack just the next day.

What type of attack was it?

When you hear the word ‘hacker’ what do you think of? Most of us would typically associate hackers as hooded figures sat in dark rooms, working hard to infiltrate our computer systems in order to wreak havoc.

It’s no wonder that small businesses are waking up to the reality of cyber security risks, with 875,000 SMEs in the UK hit by a cyber-attack in the 12 months leading up to July 2017.

Justin Clarke, Director of Underwriting and Pricing at NIG, explores the threat of cybercrime to small and medium-sized businesses, and explains why comprehensive cyber insurance coverage is essential.

There’s no hiding from paperwork.

Whether it’s for your personal life in the form of mortgage, tenancy or car agreements, utility bills and payslips, or for business admin, paperwork gets everywhere.

People have drawers of the stuff. Some people even have entire cabinets for it.

Since their revolutionary inception, smartphone brands like Apple and Samsung deploy a seemingly unending line of new-but-not-too-revolutionary smartphones ready for hungry techies to snap up.

Whilst many businesses are increasingly vigilant in amending their work policies to mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks, many still don’t have adequate protective measures against cybercrime in place. 

Despite routers becoming increasingly easy to use and configure, most people don’t amend the settings of their router having set their Wi-Fi name and password. Yet without updating your router and security settings, you could be leaving your router open to cybercriminals and malware.

In 2018, more major hacks took place from huge companies, including HSBC, British Airways and Facebook. In the first half of the year alone, it’s thought that around 4.5 million records were stolen.

A common theme that springs to mind when picturing a computer hacker is a fast-typing criminal in a dark room lit by a laptop screen, perhaps, for some reason, wearing a balaclava.