CYBER CRIMES
Protecting Against Cyber Crimes
C
yber Liability is one of the
hottest topics in insurance
these days. Businesses are
coming to recognize that no
matter how comprehensive
their systems security is, they will always
be prone to hackers. Hackers can enter
your computer systems through a variety
of ways, like stolen passwords or network
infiltration, but not all of their methods
involve technology. In fact, a growing number
of cyber crimes are committed through
what’s being called “social engineering.”
In social engineering schemes, hackers
take advantage of human weaknesses
and temptations to get employees to give
up confidential information such as,
personal passwords, bank or other financial
information, or give access to the computer,
allowing them to enter the user’s network
and wreak havoc to their systems. They
do this in a number of ways, for example,
by sending emails to employees with
falsified sender information, pretending
to be another employee or manager, and
tricking them to link through to “important
information” related to their jobs.
The idea of luring customers into giving
up their banking or personal information
to strangers has been around for decades—
most people by now are wary of these
requests. But now, businesses as well as
consumers must be vigilant against these
scams as hackers are constantly scheming
to access networks containing valuable
information: everything from top-secret
military information to confidential health
records to personal financial data.
Once businesses accept that it is virtually
impossible to guard against these hackers,
they need to take steps to protect their
valuable assets from these criminals. Training
is an important component of this effort,
with formalized classes for employees
BY: CAROL DAVIS
ATLAS INSURANCE
6
on when it’s okay to divulge confidential
information and to whom, and when it is not.
At the corporate level, sensitive information
should be housed on systems different from
those containing widely used information,
and access to such sensitive information
should be restricted to only key personnel.
Employees should be trained on what
suspicious malware links can look like, and
companies can even implement practice
drills to assess employees’ preparedness.
IT departments should force employees
to change their passwords frequently
and implement software updates as
soon as they become available.
As wide-scale data breaches continue to
occur, tarnishing the reputations of major
corporations like Target, The Home Depot,
and TJX, more businesses are realizing
the importance of a good cyber liability
insurance policy. These policies are designed
to cover not just behemoths like Target but
any small business responsible for sensitive
customer, vendor, or employee information.
Your Atlas Insurance agent can help you
determine whether your business liability
policy can provide enough protection in the
event of a serious data breach or whether a
separate cyber liability policy is needed.
You can choose cyber liability policies that
provide coverage for a number of different
risk factors, including network infiltration,
regulatory fines and penalties, privacy
and security breaches, data loss, business
interruption, PCI protection, public relations
expense, and losses due to social engineering
schemes. While policies differ widely with
respect to their spe