The demand for the services of therapists has never been greater in the UK, and your time is precious. So, we’ll keep this short and sweet; therapists should consider taking out cyber insurance. Here’s why.
Cyber-criminals have long enjoyed targeting the UK healthcare sector with social engineering scams. Healthcare businesses are lucrative for criminals due to the sensitive data they hold and lack of cyber-security awareness demonstrated by healthcare workers. Just one click on a phishing email scam can expose a system to attack, often for monetary gain in the form of ransom payments or fraud.1 The average cost of a breach (with an outcome) in micro and small businesses is £8,170.2
With the world in flux, cyber-criminals took the opportunity to up the ante in their attacks on the healthcare sector. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey of 2021 suggests that the risk of attack is higher than ever, phishing attacks have risen from 72% to 83% between 2017 ‒ 2021. Among those businesses that have identified breaches or attacks, around a quarter experience them at least once per week.3
Human error is the leading cause of data breach4, and people make a variety of mistakes that put an organisation’s data or systems at risk. You can be as vigilant as can be – but a slip-up can be costly. Some examples include:
There are bigger businesses out there, holding sensitive information that criminals could extort for more money. So why target your small therapy practice?
Recent surveys show medium to large businesses are more likely to take action to mitigate the risk and impact of a cyber-attack.
No matter the size of your therapy business, take time to review your cyber-security policy, considering both preventative measures and how you’ll respond to an attack or breach. Insurers expect to see:
Should the worst happen, cyber insurance helps by:
Speak to the Oxygen team today about cyber insurance to help mitigate risk in your therapy business, and round off your cyber-security strategy.
Call them on 0330 1289 437 or request a call back at a time that suits you.
Sources:
1. Infusetech.co.uk
2. Gov.uk/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021
3. Gov.uk/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021
4. Infosecurity Magazine
5. Gov.uk/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2021