Over half of SMEs across Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia experienced a cyber incident over the last year, according to Chubb’s recent SME survey, but many still underestimate just how significantly an attack can cripple their income and day-to-day operations.
According to Chubb’s cyber underwriting manager Andrew Taylor, the insurance and brokerage industry plays a significant role in bringing this awareness to clients reluctant to see the value in cyber-related products, and in placing a strong emphasis on preventing such attacks from happening in the first place.
“The consequences of a potential cyberattack are vast, as can be seen in the incidents that we list in our recently released survey,” Taylor told Insurance Business.
“The cash flow cost can be devastating for a small business, as they will need to divert resources such as cash and time to mitigate the incident. The consequences our insureds have had to respond to include IT forensic investigation costs, public relation costs and crisis management costs, as well as business interruption and additional costs of working, legal assistance and regulatory defence. These do correlate with our survey findings, where SMEs state that their concerns include a drop in revenue, reputational damage, and costs of managing the incident.”
“The insurance industry plays a very important role in education and awareness, and our brokers are a key part of this process,” Taylor explained. “Our survey highlights the knowledge gap around the benefits of cyber policies, with over 50% of respondents unware of the benefits that cyber insurance offers.”
Taylor highlights the fact that that over 50% of respondents to Chubb’s survey valued the ability to identify and minimise the impact of a cyber incident, and appreciated the value of having a hands-on response service. He says it’s really up to insurers and brokers to emphasise the value of such offerings when presenting their policies, especially to the businesses that see themselves as “too small to fail.”
“As thought leaders in this segment, we believe we are doing a good job of providing solutions that assist in mitigating a cyber incident,” Taylor stated.
“With over 20 years’ experience in responding to this emerging peril and with a large and specialist global team, we have constantly adapted our solutions to help our insureds recover from a threat that is constantly changing. We place emphasis on our preventive advice as well as our global incident response, and I see that the industry is moving to a position where insurance is not just the traditional “promise to pay,” but one with embedded support services. Like cyber threats, we are also constantly evolving.”
