Does your insurance policy cover remote working?

With cyberattacks on the increase, it’s not surprising that cyber insurance, cyber risk insurance or cyber liability insurance coverage (CLIC) is putting an increased responsibility on organisations to demonstrate that cyber risk is being managed or mitigated.

The recent surge in remote working has significantly increased the risk of cybercrime and data loss. The speed at which the UK was locked down has resulted in many employees working from home using a mismatch of computers, mobile devices and personal equipment, remote access and VPN services. Many organisations were not prepared for theses dramatic changes but as with any changes to working practises, IT security should be reviewed and revised accordingly. A further important consideration is that changes without adequate cyber security in place could invalidate insurance policies.

Service Manager at Conformedia and Sophos Architect, Cameron Christie-Smith, strongly advises prevention over cure. “Just this week we increased security protection for one of our newspaper clients. Upon lockdown, the majority of the staff were sent home and remote access setup using relocated office equipment and personal laptops. It then became clear that the use of personal equipment invalidated their cyber insurance policy without adequate protection. A remote security audit of personal equipment was performed and all personal equipment appropriately secured with anti-virus software and additional firewall policies.”

Sophos has responded to the increase in home working by launching two free products to boost security for organisations who have employees working from home. Sophos Home Commercial Edition Provides business-level protection for employees’ personal PCs and Macs and is free for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional security boost can be gained from Sophos XG Firewall which is currently on a free 90-day trial.

We strongly advise all organisations to review their security in line with any changes to their working practises – particularly remote working. We are here to help, so just call us for help or advice.