SBI General to now provide cyber defence insurance for enterprises

As enterprises come to terms with the reality of cyberattacks, especially with the latest breach at IT services firm Wipro Ltd, SBI General Insurance has decided to offer cyber defence insurance for enterprises, news agency PTI reported.

According to the report, the insurance provider said it initially wants to focus on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and later move on to larger enterprises and conglomerates.

It said that the cyber defence insurance scheme will protect enterprises against hack attacks, incidents of breach, loss of sensitive information and business interruption.

“Over the years, digital advancement has exponentially increased cyber risk exposures for almost all types and sizes of businesses. Cyber attackers work on the theory that majority of the businesses do not spend adequately on shoring up their cyber security,” the insurer was quoted as saying. 

This also means that most hackers or attackers operate under the presumption that if a technique works against large businesses then it will definitely work on smaller organisations, making SMBs a bigger target.

The company said the cyber defence product will offer first- and third-party coverage benefits along with options to compensate losses for business interruption due to an attack or system failure. The product will come with a crisis response service that will help organisations in dealing with dire cyber events, provide forensic investigations and provide legal advice, it said.

Last week, online publication KrebsOnSecurity said Wipro sought the help of a forensic investigator to probe hacking on its IT infrastructure. According to the report, hackers took control of the company's IT systems and launched attacks on a few of its clients. It had also said that the company was facing multiple attacks on its systems speculated to be originating from a state-sponsored entity.

However, Wipro has spoken otherwise. “We detected a potentially abnormal activity in a few employee accounts on our network due to an advanced phishing campaign. Upon learning of the incident, we promptly began an investigation, identified the affected users and took remedial steps to contain and mitigate any potential impact," chief operating officer BM Bhanumurthy said, adding that Wipro investigates 4.8 million such alerts yearly.