CGU has produced a cyber cover to protect Australian SMEs from threats including privacy breaches, system damage, extortion, computer viruses, crime and hacking. 

“Cyber security has become one of the biggest issues facing businesses and individuals today and it’s not going away,” National Underwriting Manager Professional Risks Najibi Bisso said. “We have developed an offering that we believe addresses the growing concerns SMEs will face in the future.”

CGU says government data shows almost 700,000 businesses have been victims of cyber crime, and 60% of attacks were targeted at SMEs. The average cost of such an attack exceeds $275,000.

“Cyber events can result in thousands of dollars in remediation costs… extortion costs or being sued by customers or employees for loss of personal information,” CGU said.

“Such expenses could lead to devastating loss of profits, revenue or trust in your business and brand.”

CGU’s Cyber Defence product has a number of features, including a 24/7 incident response team, advancement of defence costs, global territorial cover regardless of where an attack originated and a free one-hour consultation to assess risk mitigation strategies.

Corporate spending on IT security in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to rise from $US71 billion ($91 billion) in 2014 to $US170 billion ($218 billion) by 2020.