2023 thus far is a continuation of the previous years where cyber breaches continue to be rampant, with companies big and small falling prey to these criminals.
In April, Australia’s IPH suffered a data breach on a limited set of data, after data originating from their member firm was downloaded by an unauthorized third party. While no actual figure on the number of individuals whose data were compromised were released, the firm has estimated that it will incur A$2-$2.5 million in costs due to the incident.
Closer to home in Singapore, broadband provider WhizComms had its server breached by third party, resulting in customers’ information such as NRICs, work permits and tenancy agreements being stolen. There was no indication as to how many customers were affected nor when the breach was first detected.
Recently, real estate firm OrangeTee & Tie was fined $37000 by the regulator over a breach which affected 250,000 customers and employees in 2021. That was before penalties were enhanced in Oct 2022 where companies can be fined either 10 percent of its annual turnover or S$1million, whichever higher.
What are the possible implications of such a breach where companies are concerned? Companies face damage to their reputations and also the loss in confidence from both their existing and potential customers; firefighting and engagement of professional services companies ranging from forensics to recovery to legal to attempt containment of the breach; to fines and penalties from government regulators; and potential lawsuits from customers depending on jurisdictions.
So what can companies do? For a start, they can proactively apply security patches and also ensure that they are well insured against potential cyber incidents. Having a comprehensive cyber insurance ensures that the company will minimize its losses from potential lawsuits and also have access to specialist firms helping with data recovery and protection etc in the event of a cyber incident. This is especially helpful for small companies as these recovery services usually do not come cheap. Contact MAKinsure today to get your cyber insurance coverage up and running, or to review your existing coverage.