Standard Bank’s new cyber insurance offering for business

Standard Bank has launched a cyber insurance offering for its business clients in South Africa as part of its response to more clients doing business online because of Covid-19.

Standard Bank Insurance worked closely with UK-based INSTANDA and Hollard in developing this new product for business clients as Cybercrime continues to be a major challenge for businesses in South Africa.

According to a report from Accenture South Africa has the third-highest number of cybercrime victims globally and approximately R2.2 billion a year is lost to cyberattacks.

“The risks of the modern world demand protection from the danger of cyber-attacks,” says Leon Vermaak Global Head of Insurance at Standard Bank.

“Cybercrime is a very real threat and for many commercial entities data and information are just as important as any asset they own. Protecting that asset is where we come in.”

Standard Bank’s Commercial Cyber insurance solution provides cover to businesses for losses incurred during a cybercrime event. It is designed to cover the resultant costs and damages from a privacy breach or a network security breach, something which has been uninsurable in the past, and provides comprehensive first and third-party coverages with an expert incident response.

Services include the costs to investigate and mitigate a cyber extortion threat and where required, costs to comply with a cyber extortion demand. The costs to restore, re-collect or replace data lost, stolen or corrupted due to a systems security incident.

“Hollard is pleased to offer this commercial cyber insurance product, in partnership with Standard Bank. This product will help businesses recover quickly from cyber-attacks, with access to resources they will need to ensure business continuity as more South Africans transact online” says Angela Mhlanga, CEO of Hollard Partner Solutions.

This new offering extends to incident response costs and covers numerous incidents including but not limited to:

• Cyber extortion and malware (viruses, ransomware, or publishing of stolen data).
• Denial of service (disruption to operations).
• Downstream attack (a compromise of your environment resulting in damages to others).
• Hacking.
• Insider and privilege misuse (unauthorised access and use of systems and data by employees and service providers).
• Physical theft and loss (both devices and physical hard copy data).
• Threats posed by third party access into a client environment.

The new offering forms part of Standard Bank’s broader move to digital offerings and providing customers with cutting-edge solutions which are agile and adaptable. Standard Bank believes that digitisation and partnerships with technology firms that facilitate digital transformation allows for more people to access banking services thanks to a multiplicity of platforms.

“We wanted to offer something which was comprehensive and met the changing needs of our clients at a time when they have had to be agile and more digitally focused because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As more data and business functions are moved to digital, the risk to businesses will increase. Protection from that risk is paramount,” Vermaak says.

Standard Bank’s new cybercrime insurance solution is already available and can be purchased by contacting your Relationship Manager at Standard Bank or by visiting https://sbinsure.standardbank.co.za/