Cyber crime is one of the biggest threats facing businesses today. The problem is rising so fast that it is hard to put accurate figures on it – estimates suggest it could reach $2 trillion by 2019, a threefold increase since 2015.
Cyber Liability Insurance
Medical and healthcare practices are particularly vulnerable to cyber attack, suffering more attacks than any other market sector. You may recall the high profile attack on the NHS in 2017.
At any time you are holding hundreds of patient records, maybe more, and these records are vulnerable to attack.
And what you may not realise is that most practice, clinic or hospital insurances don’t automatically cover you for cyber attack. This leaves you open to potentially catastrophic consequences.
All Med Pro urges all medical and healthcare businesses to take out separate cyber liability insurance to protect themselves and their clients. It is the only way to guarantee peace of mind if you fall victim to cyber crime.
Possible consequences of cyber attack
Cyber criminals target your data for financial gain. If a hacker were to hack into your patient records you might face a number of possible scenarios:
- Patient records that have been sold on the black market by the time you discover the breach.
- Your business or website held to ransom by the cyber criminals who demand money for returning the records. Even if you pay the money, how confident can you be that they have not been sold on?
- Patients entitled to compensation in the event of a data breach. Your business faces the possibility of litigation and legal costs. Depending how many records were compromised, the bill for compensation could run into tens or hundreds of thousands. The Information Commissioners Office might also impose a fine.
- A cyber attack is also likely to leave your IT systems compromised, and possibly damaged beyond repair.
- Possibly harder to rebuild than any of this is your damaged reputation. Clients and patients are likely to feel upset and angry that their personal data has fallen into the hands of criminals.
Types of cyber attack
The most common forms of cyber crime include:
- Hacking – gaining access to your network to cause damage or steal data.
- Phishing – sending bogus emails that appear to come from a reputable source asking for personal details and security information.
- File hijacking – hijacking your files and holding them to ransom.
- Keylogging – recording what you type on your keyboard in order to steal passwords and personal information.
- Screenshot managing – taking a screenshot of your computer screen.
- Ad clicking – creating online adverts that direct the recipient’s computer to click a specific link.
- Distributed denial of service – causing a network to become unusable in order to disrupt business.
It’s easy to see why cyber liability insurance is one of the growing types of business insurance.
All Med Pro is the specialist medical and healthcare insurer. We can advise you on the best type of cyber liability insurance for your business. Typically, it will cover you for any compensation awarded to your patients as a result of cyber attack, their legal fees and any statutory fines.
Extra benefits
Depending on the insurer and their policy, cover can often be extended to include a whole raft of other benefits such as:
- Hardware
- Data Corruption & Reinstatement Costs
- Liability Cover for Affected Third Parties – e.g. patients
- Cyber Financial Crime
- Data – Breach Expenses
- Loss of Gross Revenue
Don’t risk becoming a victim of cyber crime with all of its costly consequences.
