According to the Association of British Insurers, only 11% of UK businesses have cyber insurance cover – a staggering figure considering that a third of businesses have experienced a cyber-attack last year, as reported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. In addition, analysis by Beaming suggests that UK businesses face a cyber-attack as often as every 50 seconds. A recent article in Insurance Age links this to the important role brokers must play in increasing the number of UK businesses with cover, and flags that in order for brokers ‘to be successful advocates of the product, it’s important that they take their own cyber risk seriously.’

“We believe that helping our brokers appreciate their own cyber exposure and providing them with a very competitive quotation, and extensive cover for their own risk, will in turn help them feel more confident in transferring this knowledge to their clients.”

We are actively trying to raise brokers’ awareness of cyber risks by providing them with real life examples where insurance brokers have suffered data breaches or cyber-attacks.

Cyber crime is on the increase, and insurance brokers are at as much risk of falling victim as any other type of business.

To explain Customer Payment Fraud in more detail, the following scenario shows how the insurance broker fell victim to this scam:

An employee at the insurance broker had their e-mail account compromised, which allowed the fraudster to monitor the insurance brokers inbox and identify an opportunity to misdirect funds from a customer who had just renewed their insurances.

The fraudster sent an e-mail from the insurance broker’s compromised e-mail account to one of the broker’s customers and explained that the premium needed to be sent to a different bank account. The broker’s customer had no reason to doubt this and without questioning the request transferred the premium over to this fraudulent account. It was only when the broker reminded their customer about the overdue monies that the cyber crime was uncovered.

The premium remained unpaid, and as the fraudulent communications appeared to come from the broker, their customer put the blame on the broker and refused to pay the premium twice. The upshot was that the broker accepted responsibility for the incident and actually paid their customer’s premium themselves as they didn’t have any cyber protection to rely on.

In this case, the primary victim of the loss was not the broker but in fact their customer and the crime cover on most cyber insurance policies would not be triggered. However, CyberSafe protects against losses of this nature.

Cyber & Financial Lines Underwriting Manager, Matthew Drinkwater, speaks about our commitment to addressing brokers’ needs:

He added: “Our cyber product, CyberSafe, aims to simplify the process for brokers selling cyber insurance to their clients, ultimately helping them to play out their important role of increasing cyber cover amongst UK businesses.

“We’ve created a very simple, slick and straightforward online quote and bind platform which has a minimal question set but provides extensive cyber liability and cybercrime coverage – which we’re continually reviewing, alongside the rating. The system also includes an immediate premium indication and target premium feedback facility, with fully contract certain quotations able to be obtained in a matter of minutes.”

_Disclaimer

_{The information provided in this content is intended for UK insurance brokers acting on behalf of their prospective or existing clients.}

_{Any description is for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any product. Policyholders who have questions or wish to arrange or amend cover should contact their insurance broker. Insurance brokers can find details of how to contact us here.}

_{Any descriptions of coverage contained are meant to be general in nature and do not include nor are intended to include all of the actual terms, benefits, and limitations found in an insurance policy. The terms of any specific policy will instead govern that policy. Any guidance for UK insurance brokers is intended to provide general information only, and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice.}