Cyber Insurance; 7 Questions To Ask About Cyber Security
Written by: Black Kite
Cyber Insurance; Technology changes and develops so fast that hackers abilities and capabilities can become more comprehensive before you find out how to protect yourself against cyber risks. Considering fast and continuous development of hacking world, finding ideal ways to protect your company against cyber risks can be complicated. But, this doesn’t mean you are supposed to sit and wait with folded arms.
Now, it is high time to take action and to be right on hacker’s and other cyber risks’ back. The very first two things to do about this are to know what the risks are in your case and how you can protect yourself against them proactively. After those, you can go further and buy a cyber security service.
To draw your own route for protection, start asking the crucial and basic questions. Below, we will help you find out your answers of 7 important questions about cyber security.
Let’s begin!
Cyber Insurance
1. What is cyber risk and cyber risk management?
Cyber risk can be defined as any kind of risk that emerges from the use of information and communication technology. For a cyber risk to occur, electronic communication networks and virtual reality is needed. This means cyber risk management includes basically managing these two elements.
Cyber risk management is the process when risks avoidance, risks mitigation, risk transfer or self-insurance is provided. It focuses on risk control and prevention.
2. What are cyber insurance and its types?
Cyber insurance market is a developing area with few options now. There are both insurance companies and personal cyber insurance products even though they are not very well known. As a brand new market, cyber insurance products and coverage change very fast. Companies offering cyber insurance service target to succeed in crisis management, business interruption, data asset protection and cyber extortion.
Cyber insurance types differ according to company size, size of the customer base, web presence and the type of data collected and stored. Prices also vary accordingly. Basic services insurance cover privacy liability, network security liability, intellectual property and media breaches.
3. What is my cyber risk score and how can it be measurable?
Measurement of cyber risk provides estimation on probabilities of occurrence and risk levels. It is the most essential part of cyber risk management. In case when you are informed of your own unique analysis on risks, you can fight back effectively. Your cyber risk can be found out upon an evaluation in around 20 security-related categories. These categories are designed to monitor your company’s security posture.
The results are given under 4 main categories ideally: Safeguard, Privacy, Resiliency and Reputation. Sub-categories are where you see the detailed information. This is how your cyber risk is measured professionally.
4. What is potential damage and cost?
Cyber risk compromises the confidentiality, availability or integrity of your data and services. Basically it can be a reputational damage, financial loss or business interruption etc. To be fair, there are numerous potential risks and damages considering cybercrime, and this is why potential costs are not easy to estimate.
As the researches conducted on this subject are recent, the uncertainty of the costs is inevitable. Yet, the annual global costs of cyber risk are generally estimated to be above one hundred billion USD, which emphasizes the economic significance of cyber risk.[*]
5. How can I protect my company against risks?
For a company, proactive protection against risks is vital as the attacks are too sudden and fast to stop before they cost too much. As part of a risk management plan, organizations routinely must decide which risks to avoid, accept, control or transfer. Transferring risk is where cyber insurance comes into play.
Every company has its own ecosystem to be kept alive and fertile. This is why you should adopt a risk management and protection strategy that is unique for your own company.
6. What is the coverage of security services?
You can imagine cyber security as antivirus software for your company. It reduces or eliminates cyber risk exposures as much as possible. Because the risks are changing constantly, coverage of security services are expected to adjust permanently.
Security service providers manage critical conditions, continuous monitoring, risk transfer etc. to succeed in risk control and prevention. They conduct risk assessment and estimate the worst and most likely scenarios to be proactive. Then, they find and apply the best solutions that are subject to change considering your own conditions.
7. What do governments do to prevent cyber risks?
Governments are getting more and more aware of the potential risks and accordingly they develop standards. The first step governments do to prevent cyber risks is to increase their own analytical skills and to support cyber insurance.
Governments have to set the legal framework, especially regarding competition law, since combining data might breach existing laws. Governments could reduce the risk threats by imposing more severe punishments and increasing the resources for law enforcement. International collaboration is also crucial along with setting minimum standards for risk mitigation while fighting against cybercrime.
[*] https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/research-topics-document-type/pdf_public//cyber-risk-10_key_questions.pdf