Make Cyber Security Your New Year Resolution

What to look out for in 2018

2018 is set to be a challenging year online with increases in cyber threats and the evolution of Australia’s legislative landscape in relation to data breaches.

The Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) Scheme will commence in Australia on 22nd of February. The scheme applies to all businesses with personal information security obligations under the Australian Privacy Act.

The NDB scheme introduces an obligation to notify individuals whose personal information is involved in an eligible data breach* that is likely to result in serious harm**.

The notification must include recommended steps those individuals should take in response to the breach and what steps are being taken to mitigate affected individual’s exposure.

CRM Brokers can arrange a cyber insurance policy that provides a 24/7 incident response team consisting of IT, legal and public relation consultants.

The response team aims to get your business back up and running as soon as possible, satisfy your obligations under the new legislation whilst providing affected individuals with the peace of mind that their credit and identity are safe.

Find out how little it costs to protect your business from the notification costs associated with the NDB scheme by contacting us on 1300 880 494 or obtain a quote through our online proposal form.

Simple steps to online safety

Many cyber experts are predicting that ransomware will continue to wreak havoc in 2018 and we will see a rise in other digital extortion methods. Other predictions include cybercriminals finding new ways to exploit our smart appliances and devices. Fortunately, even with this gloomy outlook, you can make a few small changes to help mitigate your exposure to a cyber-attack. The Australian Government initiative, Stay Smart Online, have developed a Guide to Protect your Business in 5 minutes. Some key action points include:

  • Privacy – do not share passphrases or keep sensitive business or customer data on computers outside your control. Take responsibility for making your team understand information security, and include this in your business plan.
  • Passphrases – tell your employees to create passphrases for their online accounts. Advise them to use two-factor authentication or verification for additional protection.
  • Awareness – Look for the padlock symbol in your browser address bar and ‘https’ at the start of the website address when visiting sites. Awareness also extends to being on the lookout for suspicious emails.
  • Network and device security – Keep your security software up to date and back up your data to devices or locations isolated from your corporate network.
  • Backups – Take your backup offsite or store it securely, like other important documents. Test your backup system regularly to ensure that it restores all information correctly

The full Guide can be downloaded from our website.

Which Cyber Insurance policy is right for you?

There is no such thing as an impenetrable system; this is why in today’s digital age Cyber Insurance is a must for your business to mitigate your exposure in the event of a cyber-attack.

Find out how little it costs to protect your business from the costs attached to a cyber-attack. You can obtain a Cyber Insurance quote online in a matter of minutes, click here to start.

Contact CRM Brokers today, we will work with you to find the right policy that mitigates your potential exposure from this emerging risk,  call us on 1300 880 494.

Partnership with Stay Smart Online

CRM Brokers are proud partners of Stay Smart Online, an Australian Government initiative designed to help everyone understand the risks and simple steps we can take to protect our personal and financial information online.

Stay Smart Online also provide a free Alert Service to explain recent online threats and how they can be managed. Small business users are provided with easy to understand online safety and security information and solutions to help protect their online safety a privacy.

Sign up to the Alert Service

 

*Eligible data breach

An eligible data breach arises when the following three criteria are satisfied:

  1. there is unauthorised access to or unauthorised disclosure of personal information, or a loss of personal information, that an entity holds (see, What is a ‘data breach’?)
  2. this is likely to result in serious harm to one or more individuals (see, Is serious harm likely?), and
  3. the entity has not been able to prevent the likely risk of serious harm with remedial action.

 

**Serious harm

The NDB scheme includes a non-exhaustive list of ‘relevant matters’ that may assist entities to assess the likelihood of serious harm. These are set out under the broader headings:

  1. the type or types of personal information involved in the data breach
  2. the circumstances of the data breach
  3. the nature of the harm that may result from the data breach.
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