Only 34% of Singapore SMEs are insured from cyber risks

SME leaders remain aloof amidst cyber threats.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Singapore’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) experienced a cyber risk in 2018, reveals a study by Chubb.

Across these occurrences, nearly a third were in the form of data files breach in email traffic of the senior team, followed by research and development data, and intellectual property data and financial performance data, says Andrew Taylor, Cyber Underwriting Manager of Chubb Asia Pacific.

The same report showed that cyber threats posed a negative impact on operations, and despite of this, a big percentage of SME leaders were still not insured from risks.

Cyber threats caused significant drops across four key business areas: relationship with customers, from 65% to 55%, revenue and sales, from 62% falling to 51%, public reputation with 49% from a previous 59%, and cost of the incident, from 59% to 46%.

While 60% of SME leaders believe insurance is important in protecting against cyber risk, only 34% of SMEs have cyber insurance.

“As an industry, insurers need to take some responsibility for raising standards around cyber risk management, especially among smaller businesses where both coverage and preparedness are lower,” says Taylor.

With those that were insured, regulatory advice (56%) and assistance with speed of incident response (56%) were identified by SMEs to bring the most value.