Business owners are being urged to urgently review their insurance cover to ensure that they are adequately covered in the event of a cyber related incident.
Just under a fifth of companies surveyed said they had insurance in place to deal with such a threat.
The research, involving more than 200 companies, was carried out on behalf of Leinster based general insurance and financial planning broker, LHK Group.
The study concluded that up to 70% of larger SMEs – those that employ 100 people or more – have been affected by the threat of cyber or invoice fraud.
Invoice fraud generally involves a fraudster notifying a company that supplier payment details have changed and providing alternative details in order to defraud the business.
The study found that overall, just over one in five firms had been impacted, but the figure rose substantially when it came to larger businesses.
Of the firms that had made some preparation for such a risk, nearly half said they had conducted staff training while 56% said they had anti-fraud technology in place.
Only a minority of businesses said they were “extremely confident” of the steps they have taken to prevent a fraud event, the incidence of which is becoming more and more prevalent.
“We need to take more measures, and review existing ones, to tackle cyber-attacks and invoice fraud up front,” Colm Kelleher, Managing Director of LHK Group, said.
He cited the costs accrued after the cyber-attack on the HSE, which amounted to over €100 million.
“The follow-on costs to business reputation are incalculable,” he added.
He urged companies to review their insurance cover and ensure that it’s adequate.
“Standard commercial policies typically do not provide cyber liability cover and many business owners don’t realise this,” he concluded.
RTE Business News 27th October 2022 – Brian Finn
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