What’s personal about cyber crime?

Unsurprisingly, cyber criminals are taking advantage of the current situation and targeting people across the UK with a host of fraudulent activities online.

So whilst we are all aware of the need to have home insurance to keep our homes protected, you may be surprised to know that the results of the latest Office of National Statistics survey show that across the UK, cases of fraud outweighed the risks of burglary by almost ten to one*.  It found that 3.8 million cases of fraud had been committed in the UK vs. 423,000 domestic burglaries last year.

So what’s the risk to me?

People often ask: why would I personally be targeted by a hacker rather than a large organisation? The answer is: why wouldn’t you be?  Hackers are opportunists and do not discriminate.

Here’s a quick quiz:

• Do you have a smartphone, tablet, PC, or laptop?

• Do you or your family regularly use the internet?

• Do you have a social media account?

• Do you shop or bank online?

If you’ve answered yes to any of those then you’re potentially at risk of cyber fraud, your personal information being lost or misused, or your identity being stolen.

How can I stay protected?

As dependency on computers, electronic devices and the internet grows, so do the chances of you and your family becoming victims of cyber crime.

The following steps can help to prevent a cyber attack:

1. Be aware – small lapses of concentration can lead to bigger problems.  Check who emails are from and treat any emails with grammatical or spelling mistakes in your personal inbox with added suspicion
2. Be thorough – use strong unique passwords for each of your personal accounts and devices
3. Be vigilant – before making payments to gardeners, cleaners or anyone else – scan all bank details from your supplier before payment to ensure they are who they say they are.  Many banks will not refund money paid willingly into a fraudulent false account
4. Be protected – A cyber security consultant, such as Dynarisk, can review your personal devices and monitor your household’s digital footprint
5. Finally, having a specialist Personal Cyber Insurance policy in place provides peace of mind that if anything does go wrong, your household is covered

If the worst were to happen, ensuring you have a Personal Cyber Insurance policy in place provides you and your family with protection and peace of mind.

Through the IoD Professional Benefits Programme, Personal Cyber Insurance can now be added to a high net worth home insurance policy from Hiscox.  Their policy includes cover for your household against hackers, social engineering, cyber theft and extortion, plus media liability in case your social media accounts are fraudulently taken over.

Also included is cyber security consultant DynaRisk’s Ultimate protection, which can advise you on how to protect your household’s ‘digital footprint’ by helping you to secure your home routers, email inboxes and personal devices and will help you if you think you’ve been compromised.

Hiscox wants to help your small business thrive. Their blog articles will contain lots of useful information relevant to your growing business. But these articles do not constitute professional advice and must not be construed nor relied upon as such. To find out more on a subject we cover here, please seek professional assistance, specific to your circumstances.

*Office of National Statistics data March 2019.

**Any discount is only applicable to policies introduced via the Institute of Directors, whether existing or new, but could not be applied to policies that are being managed by an alternative third party such as an insurance broker.

Discount available for the lifetime of your policy applies on renewals while the Institute of Directors remains an Introducer Appointed Representative of Hiscox Underwriting Ltd.

Terms and conditions apply. For full terms and conditions see hiscox.co.uk/IoD/home-insurance.

The Institute of Directors is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Hiscox Underwriting Ltd. who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. For UK residents only.