Cyber threats are costing the Philippines’ businesses a huge amount of money. Therefore, a complete cyber insurance policy is a MUST in such situations. One report by Microsoft Philippines last year highlighted cyber threats that would go to hit around $3.5 billion in a single year.

The Insurance Commission (IC) said that the breaches in data privacy are the actual risks. Hence, the Philippines’ businesses should opt for a cybersecurity insurance policy. He further added that dealing with cyber attacks and breaches must be a part of a company’s risk management plan.

Moreover, talking about the industries that require cybersecurity insurance, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said highlighted BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) as it mainly deals with a huge amount of data. Hence, the BPO industry requires the greatest protection against cyber threats.

Nonetheless, the BPO industry has not fully understood the intensity of the time and there’s a very low take-up of cybersecurity insurance policies as of now! It’s totally alarming at this point in time!

In November 2021, a lot of people got to know that their personal information was breached because of a ransomware attack on S&R Membership Shopping which is a warehouse club located in the city of Paranaque.

According to Manila’s National Privacy Commission, personal details such as name, phone numbers, or birthdate were revealed to the hackers. However, bank information was somehow preserved. So, the authorities are constantly working to improve the cyber environment in the Philippines.

Since mid-2020, there have been several cyber-attacks on the Philippines’ small and mid-size businesses. These attacks have caused the breach of the personal databases of the customers with companies bearing huge losses around US. $500,000 to US. $1 million.

Importance of a Cybersecurity Insurance

Cybersecurity insurance makes sure that your company fully recovers after a data breach or a cyber-attack. The insurance company would reimburse the costs like equipment damage, legal help, forensic examination, time loss, revenue loss, or costs related to business disruption. Moreover, an insurance company anticipates such cyber-attacks.

Therefore, they inform you in prior so that you are able to fight back at the right time without any major delay. Hence, cybersecurity insurance plays a crucial role in today’s dicey digital environment. A wide variety of businesses should opt for cybersecurity insurance before it is too late!

Why does Your Philippines Business Needs Cybersecurity Insurance?

After acknowledging the important details about the condition of businesses in the Philippines in terms of cybersecurity while understanding the importance of a cybersecurity insurance policy. Let’s have a broader look at why your Philippines business needs full-fledged cybersecurity insurance. Here we go!

• Loss of Data

During a data breach, the sensitive information of the clients is compromised. In the Philippines, 43% of the companies took the help of cybersecurity measures in order to prevent data loss. As we all know that Filipino population is becoming more and more tech-savvy with each passing day. Hence, the need for cyber insurance has grown multifold. In 2016, the Philippines Election Commission suffered a major cyber-attack as it was the biggest data leak in the history of the Philippines. The sensitive data related to 70 million voters was compromised. Another study in 2019 highlighted that if the cybersecurity conditions are not improved in the country, the Philippines would have to be ready to face a loss of $3.5 billion.

However, during the pandemic, the cybersecurity conditions drastically improved. A survey was conducted in 2020 which stated that 43% of the businesses in the Philippines have become more active in investing in cybersecurity insurance.

Loss of data is still a huge cause of concern for the improving digital economy of the Philippines. A loss of data occurs, and the company is responsible for the breach no matter where the data is kept.

So, it is important that you keep a regular check on the places where sensitive information is stored.

Nonetheless, if a data breach occurs, a cybersecurity insurance policy would put efforts into the retention of the data. Plus, the insurance policy would also account for the defense mechanisms such as responding to the cyber threats and lending a hand to the investigators.

• Loss of Devices

Today, everything happens through a small, portable, yet so powerful mobile phone. Apart from mobile phones, laptops are the primary devices used in companies. In the Philippines, mostly the workforce uses similar devices to operate in their companies.

So, when such devices are left on the premises of the company, it becomes very easy to hack or steal these devices. Nonetheless, it is not possible to fully protect the devices and prevent the loss of devices, but you can organize limited information on such gadgets.

Companies in the Philippines are now investing a lot in cybersecurity measures. For example, an allocation of 86% for anti-malware and antivirus tools, 59% for firewalls of the next generation, and 47% for cloud security tools have been invested in order to prevent any major or minor breach.

The important markets for cybersecurity insurance in the Philippines are the Philippine government, BPO industry, educational industry, telecommunication firms, health, and financial sectors. These industries are extremely vulnerable to the loss of devices and data breaches.

Therefore, the primary task is to safeguard all such industries for the betterment of the Philippines on whole.

Using effective passwords, placing two-factor authentication, and placing fingerprint access to all the devices would really help the companies to fight back against cyber threats. Moreover, sensitive and private information should not be stored on a laptop. Instead, encryption must be made mandatory.

Nonetheless, if a breach occurs then according to the cybersecurity insurance policy, the business would be compensated through Network and Information Security Liability coverage. Such coverage provides prevention from unauthorized access to devices or sensitive information with funding to cover the costs of lost devices such as laptops or mobile phones.

So, the businesses in the Philippines really need to step up their game and get cybersecurity insurance immediately.

• Businesses at Risk

Several businesses in the Philippines are at a major risk of cyber threats due to which a number of businesses have winded up their operations within the country. In order to tackle the risk, cybersecurity insurance has literally become a mandatory thing to opt for before anything big happens.

The small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines that went digital due to the pandemic are experiencing constant cyber-attacks, a study by Cisco Systems, Inc highlighted. Mainly, SMBs are the victims of such cyber-attacks. Therefore, a need for cybersecurity insurance is there!

Juan Huat Koo, director of Cisco for cybersecurity mentioned that as the SMBs are going digital due to the pandemic, the attackers are becoming more and more active in targeting the vulnerable areas. Moreover, when the companies go digital, they produce more data than before. So, concerns increase even more!

Around 77% of the SMBs have conducted surveys to find out the main reasons for the cyber-attacks. Every analysis indicated a number of feeble entry points that helped the hackers to breach into the systems with total ease. Hence, around 82% of SMBs have grown more conscious of cyber threats.

Robin Llamas who is Cisco Philippines’ managing director officer-in-charge mentioned that SMBs need to take immediate action to stop such cyber-attacks in order to avoid big losses. He further added that when the hackers spend a lot of time in the system, they automatically have the advantage to steal more and more data.

In order for businesses to reduce or eliminate risk related to cybersecurity, the first and foremost task is to get a cybersecurity insurance policy that not only deals with the aftermath of the incident. Rather it helps businesses throughout their journeys to combat cyber-attackers.

• Cyber Risks are Evolving

The major problem of cyber-attacks is that they never remain safe. The art of cyber theft is constantly evolving. As technology is evolving, the methods of cyber-attackers are also evolving. In the Philippines, 7,000 ransomware attacks were inflicted on businesses in 2020 with web threats increasing to 59 percent.

Cyber-attackers are extremely interested in the cyber environment of the Philippines. As the attacks are evolving, the task has become extremely hard to improve cybersecurity on the daily basis. Hence, there is a huge need for implementing a cybersecurity insurance policy so that businesses in the Philippines remain on the safe side.

Phishing scams, unsolicited emails, ransomware attacks, and internet frauds are quite common in the Philippines. Nonetheless, the hackers are regularly adapting to the modern day’s needs as they are upping their game at every stage. So, getting cybersecurity insurance for businesses in the Philippines should not be an option but rather a requirement.

The Bottom Line So, here we have come to an end where we discussed the need for implementing cybersecurity insurance in businesses in the Philippines. As the country is adopting fresh and newer digital technologies, the requirement for strengthening the system has grown even more. It has become a priority to safeguard the systems right at the moment in order to avoid any major losses.