Cyber attacks are increasing in Canada, with the average cost of cybercrime costing Canadian organizations a whopping $6.75 million per incident in 2021.
The increase in the severity and sophistication of cyber attacks is making it necessary for businesses across Canada to both focus and invest in their cybersecurity strategies. Not just to protect their business from potential threats, but also to maintain their cyber insurance coverage.
With that in mind, in this blog we take a look at what cyber insurance coverage actually is, why it’s important for your Ontario-based business and what you need to do to maintain that coverage in the province.
What is cyber insurance coverage in Ontario?
Cyber insurance, also known as cybersecurity insurance, can provide your organization with coverage against the risk of cyber security threats and data breaches.
With cyber insurance coverage, your business can be covered against data breaches, social engineering, ransomware, phishing attacks and other forms of malicious viruses that compromise your data, steal customer identities or damage your company’s hardware.
Cyber insurance coverage is incredibly important for your Ontario-based business, especially when considering the number of cyber attacks on small and medium-sized businesses is growing.
In fact, about one-fifth of Canadian businesses were impacted by cyber security incidents in 2019 according to Statistics Canada - and that number is only on the rise.
Although a cyber insurance policy may seem like another expense to your business, not responding to a cybersecurity crisis following a breach is way more costly. Cyber attacks can easily cost your business six-figures and up, and that’s not even taking into account the regulations your company is breaking when losing data and the lawsuits that might be filed against you.
Cyber insurance is essential to protect the future of your business.
New cyber insurance coverage regulations that Canadian businesses must know
The issue when it comes to cyber insurance coverage is that the severity and sophistication of cyber attacks are increasing. That’s making it more expensive and more difficult for Canadian businesses to get cybersecurity insurance.
To obtain cyber insurance coverage at a reasonable cost, Canadian businesses have to do more to convince insurers that they are doing enough to reasonably protect their organization from the risks of cybercrime.
As a result of the increase in cybercrime, many Canadian cyber insurance companies are introducing new regulations around which businesses they will insure. Cyber insurance companies in Canada may now require insured businesses to offer multi-factor authentication (MFA), have effective cybersecurity policies in place to protect sensitive information and customer/employee identities, be using phish testing methods to find vulnerabilities, as well as have data breach response plans in place.
Businesses that have an online presence will most likely need to meet these new requirements to be able to obtain a cyber insurance policy.
With that in mind, here are a few things to consider before you look to obtain cyber insurance in Canada.
Start using multi-factor authentication: MFA is a cybersecurity measure that requires users to provide multiple factors to verify their identity before gaining access to a network, an account or online system. This adds an additional layer of security to your network over the traditional single password.
Create a data breach response strategy: This is an in-depth document that details the immediate action and information your organization will require to manage a data breach crisis. This should include a thorough procedure of your business that will identify the root cause of a breach, and how you’ll securely lock down the affected systems.
Provide your employees with cybersecurity training: Another increasing thing we are seeing on cybersecurity questionnaires is for businesses to say whether they are providing their employees with regular training. To ensure you can answer this to an insurer's satisfaction, make sure you are implementing regular training to your employees, both in terms of awareness of cyber vulnerabilities and what to look for in potential threats. Cybersecurity training should be an important aspect of your company’s cybersecurity strategy, ensuring your team is implementing best practices into their daily processes.
Invest in an end-to-end cybersecurity software: Enhance the value of your antivirus software with an end-to-end cybersecurity system that monitors your entire network, from your cloud services to your physical devices. End-to-end security will monitor for vulnerabilities in your network, analyze your activity and send you real-time alerts on threats, vulnerabilities and improvements. OT Group has partnered with Covalence to offer Ontario businesses the perfect cybersecurity solution.
Backup your data: Most cyber attacks are focused on stealing your data and then demanding a ransom from your organization to get the data back. By backing up your data in a different location, your business completely avoids the need of ever having to send a ransom to cyber criminals. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter if you lose your data though, as you’ll still be liable for the data lost and could end up with some hefty lawsuits if you didn’t do enough to protect it. Backing up your data is just one component of a successful cybersecurity strategy.
Do you have any further questions about how to get, or maintain, cyber insurance coverage in Ontario? Get in touch with OT Group today. We would love to help ensure your organization has a cost-effective and successful cybersecurity strategy in place that protects your business and its customers.
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