Cyber insurance is not a priority among many small and midsize businesses

Cyber insurance coverage - Digital

SMBs often don’t see the need for the coverage because they don’t expect to be affected by such incidents.

According to the results of a new poll, approximately half of the small and midsize businesses (SMBs) operating out of Singapore don’t feel that they need cyber insurance or are undecided as to whether it offers them any potential benefit. This trend aligns with those in the United States, according to several past polls.

The SMBs feel that they are not at risk because they don’t store sensitive data online.

According to the poll, SMBs feel that they likely don’t need cyber insurance coverage because they don’t store sensitive data online, and they don’t feel that they will be a target for cybersecurity attacks or other related problems. As a result, these companies often choose not to spend their money on paying premiums for a coverage that they don’t feel offers them any real benefit.

Cyber insurance - Small Business - computer

About 39 percent of SMBs in Singapore don’t think they will purchase this type of coverage or are undecided about whether they believe their risk is high enough to require it. Among those, about half stated that they were unlikely to be the target of a cybersecurity issue or other form of cybercrime. Another 54 percent of those respondents stated that their companies’ personal and sensitive data is not stored online, so there isn’t really anything to protect with the coverage.

The research showed that the value of cyber insurance hasn’t been fully explained among the SMBs.

The findings reported were from a study commissioned in the country by insurer QBE Insurance Group. The research was conducted by Creative Way Consultants. It involved the participation of 416 local SMB decisionmakers. It was conducted during Q1 2023.

That said, even though many SMBs didn’t see the true value of the coverage for their own businesses, about 97 percent said that they were aware of the cyber risks that could potentially threaten their businesses. Among them, 21 percent said that they had data protection and security concerns and 38 percent confessed to having ben affected by cyber issues within the previous 12 months. That represented an increase of 26 percent over the rate from 2021.

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