As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
In the case of the cyber claims journey, that first step is making a call to a cyber claims specialist who can kickstart the process of engaging the relevant third-party experts to deploy a swift incident response plan.
Suffering a data breach can feel daunting and overwhelming for clients, but speed is of the essence in taking a proactive approach to responding to an event and putting a recovery plan in motion.
This first, vital step in the claims journey, in conjunction with pre-event preparation such as building cyber resilience through vulnerability management, cybersecurity assessments and understanding regulatory and reporting obligations, can make all the difference to the client’s peace of mind and to how well and how rapidly their company is able to bounce back.
The first few hours
According to the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 50% of businesses and 32% of charities had a data breach in the 12-month period ending January 2024. The proportion of businesses that suffered a breach increased in line with company size; 70% of medium-sized businesses and 74% of large businesses in the United Kingdom said they had a data breach in that period.
Our clients are increasingly aware of the potential for a cyber incident that results in a data breach, and they are also conscious that the clock starts ticking the moment an incident occurs. A quick, effective response is needed to minimise the disruption to operations and supply chains, to limit reputational damage, and reassure clients and other stakeholders.
Suffering a data breach can feel daunting and overwhelming for clients, but speed is of the essence in taking a proactive approach to responding to an event and putting a recovery plan in motion.
In the initial minutes after an attack is noticed, our clients can make a first call to our hotline. They will be immediately connected to an assigned cyber claims specialist to ascertain the nature of the event and which stakeholders might be affected.
This call will explore questions, for example whether the event occurred because of a malicious hack, a disgruntled employee, or someone misplacing a laptop. It will determine what information might have been compromised, roughly how many individuals might be affected and where they are based.
Gathering this information enables our team to determine which expert third-party vendors will be best placed to help us and our client to set their response plan into action. It also gives our clients the reassurance that even though a serious event may have occurred, action is being taken. To put it simply, it allows us to let our clients know that things will be okay.
Incident triage
Part of the reassurance that we can offer clients is that we, and the third-party vendors who support our cyber claims process, have dealt with hundreds if not thousands of similar incidents. And we use that knowledge and expertise to ensure that we have the right, third parties involved as quickly as possible.
Those experts, who include specialist counsel, computer forensics specialists, public relations and crisis communications professionals, for example, work with us to formulate the response in a matter of hours after an event is detected.
This incident triage is almost like a huddle where a team is gathered to work out the best way to meet a common goal. That notion of working alongside our clients is a vital part of the cyber claims experience and crucial to the process.
Getting back on track
Cyber criminals are constantly evolving their own techniques and are often very sophisticated. But the resources at our disposal to help clients recover are evolving rapidly too. Incident response experts are now able to deploy meaningful services in mere seconds.
As part of our mission to enhance the cyber claims experience, we are increasingly talking to brokers and clients about this claims journey up front. By sharing with them insights into how the cyber claims journey works, we can give confidence ahead of time.
Making that initial phone call to tell us that a breach has been detected can be daunting, but we want to assure our clients that if that moment comes, our response will be fast and that we, and our expert partners, will be on hand to guide them through the journey and get them back on the road to recovery.
