What is a Cyberattack ?

Cybercriminals get creative to target flaws in your computer systems and deploy sophisticated processes for malicious purposes. You think you are safe from cyberattacks because your business is not in the high-tech sector? Think again…

Do your employees have an email address ? If so, you are risking being a victim of email phishing. This strategy is even more threatening when your employees use their work address for personal communications. The hacker only has to send a seemingly innocuous email and then asks the recipients to click on a link or download an attachment.

You have a website ? You are using, on a daily basis, a specific software for the management of your customer relations or the processing of your orders ? Do you really know all the weaknesses of  hosting codes, your servers, plug-ins or extensions ? Ransomware is a malicious practice aimed at taking control of the tools that are necessary for the smooth running or your business. The cybercriminal identifies what’s important, then encrypts it all. When this encryption is complete, you can no longer access your website or software and a message appears dictating the steps you will have to follow in order to recover your access – most often at a high price!

Factories are less and less mechanical and more and more computerized. Most manufacturers do not have the necessary IT knowledges to properly judge the level of the protection of their IT infrastructures. IT teams focus primarily on the production equipment and the management of traditional IT systems, but are not specialized in protecting them.

Identify your vulnerabilities to better protect them

Internal IT systems and websites usually require considerable investment and the participation of qualified individuals.

By choosing to protect your infrastructure from cybercriminals, your insurance brokers first surround themselves with security experts to target your security weaknesses. Intrusion tests can indicate what the potential repercussions would be in the event of a cyberattack: Would the fraudster have easily access to your customers’ confidential information ? To your employees’ personal information? Or your company’s financial data?Once the vulnerabilities are properly identified, considerable efforts must be made to avoid attacks as much as possible.

What to put in place to counter the risks?

From a purely technical point of view, various software can be used to further secure your networks. It is important to reduce the number of individuals who have access to the control parameters of your IT tools. Companies must also have internal procedures in place to minimize risky behaviour of their employees. Training may then be necessary for them to adopt irreproachable practices. After all, the vast majority of successful cyberattacks are a direct result of careless actions of an employee.

To avoid data loss, you can also increase the frequency of your backup copies. Thus, in the event of an attack, you have as much information as possible to continue your activities and minimize the financial repercussions. Even better: keep these backups through external systems that are inaccessible remotely. Finally, put a contingency plan in place. No one wants to be a victim of a cyberattack; however, you need to be prepared to respond effectively to fraud.

Transfer the financial risks to your Insurer

Cyber threats are growing and affecting the manufacturing sector more than ever. Despite all your good intentions and the adoption of the best practices, it is impossible to guarantee a flawless system. Imagine 12, 24, even 36 hours without access to your internal computer files or to your order book. Imagine your customers’ confidential information or your employees’ personal information being leaked by a malicious individual. What will be the financial repercussions on your company? And what will be the price to pay hackers to regain control of your infrastructure? How to handle the situation? Verrier & Associés specializes in corporate Risk Management. Let us accompany you in the transfer of risks to an Insurer, even before a first misdeed can occur. Contact us today.