Time is money – quick response is critical in a cyber attack

There are a number of very good reasons why every business needs to have a strategy in place not only to prevent cyber attacks if possible, but also to deal with them in an efficient way when they happen. The fact is that it’s highly unlikely that your business will never be hit by hackers. What will make all the difference when it does happen is how quickly you can respond to mitigate the damage.

To illustrate the importance of quick response, consider the case of an online appliance retailer that was recently hit with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

An online appliance retailer was hit with this kind of attack, and although they had a comprehensive cyber insurance policy (with one of our partners), they decided to try to handle the situation internally. Their IT team basically spent the day doing battle with the hackers, trying to counter the attack, but the end result was that their website was down for one full day.

The beauty of having a proper cyber insurance policy (at least one that you get through Mitch) is that it gives you 24/7 access to an elite cyber-response team that specializes in dealing with just this kind of attack. Had the online retailer called the cyber-response number as soon as they became aware of the problem, the website likely would have been back up in an hour or two. Instead, having their ecommerce website down for the full day cost the company more than $170,000 in sales, and no doubt additional losses in future from frustrated customers.

The above example illustrates not only the value of having cyber insurance, but also the importance of taking advantage of it. Had the business not had cyber insurance, it’s possible they would have been down much longer, and lost millions. So good on them for taking precautions and getting this essential coverage. But the reason that our insurer partners all offer the cyber-response team is because they know that time is of the essence during an attack, and literally every minute costs money.

Ultimately, the business made a claim for the lost sales and that was covered by the policy, but it’s impossible to undo the damage that is done to a company’s reputation every time a customer is unable to reach you. Cyber insurance also includes coverage for reputational damage if it has an immediate and measurable impact of sales, but a customer that was unable to reach you today is not only a lost sale today, it may be a lifetime of lost repeat business.

Mitch works with the top cyber insurers in the country, and all of our partners offer access to an elite cyber response team that is a critical part of the coverage. When you come on board as a policyholder, you’ll get a phone number and in most cases an app that you can use to reach the cyber response team anytime, from anywhere. Great peace of mind when the clock is ticking…

Give us a call today to learn more about how cyber insurance can protect your business and just how affordable it can be.