cyber risk

The growing trend for companies to take out cyber insurance took a hit after security specialists  lined up to criticise the product offering

Gary Sidaway, senior vice president of security strategy at NTT Com Security, said: “I understand why people are going that way but actually when it comes to a breach or an incident, it’s really not worth the paper it’s written on.”

Marty Legg, cloud services director as SecureData, speaking at a panel session for CRN Online Security Summit, said: “It’s not particularly expensive, and [customers] feel that all of a sudden they’ve got another tick in the box.”

He later added: “But I feel it is an immature way of dealing with it.”

And Richard Pharro, chief executive of APM Group, an technology skills accreditation body, warned about the drawbacks of cyber insurance.

He said:“While cyber-insurance may offer the opportunity for those hit by cyber attacks to recoup some of their monetary losses, little can be done to repair the reputational damage brought by a data breach, the negative impact on trust and lost intellectual property.”