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Business Interruption Insurance helps your business to keep operating in the event of a disaster, for example your warehouse catches fire, your showroom is flooded or essential equipment is stolen. If any of these events prevent your business from trading, then Business Interruption Insurance can cover your business’s financial losses from the everyday unavoidable costs of running your business, even though you can no longer trade. The question on the minds of many business owners however, is do they really need this type of insurance for their business? Who can benefit from Business Interruption Insurance? Just because you can’t continue trading and you aren’t generating any revenue, doesn’t mean that all your costs stop as well. Let’s take a look at some of the ongoing costs that your business will still have to pay, even if your buildings have burnt down or your store has been flooded and you can no longer trade. Do you need to pay your employees’ wages? Without a significant cashflow coming into your business, paying employee wages for the weeks or months until your business can recommence trading might be quite difficult. How will your employees manage to live without a wage? How will you manage if you can’t draw a salary from your business? Do you need to pay loans or rent? Have you taken out any loans to fund your business or purchase assets or equipment? These loans won’t go away just because you are no longer trading, as they still need to be paid every month. The same is true for rental leases, which need to be paid, whether or not you are able to trade. How will you pay for these loans or leases? Do you need to pay your suppliers? Since most businesses pay their suppliers at the end of the month, but certainly not immediately, you may well have a number of suppliers waiting to be paid. How will you pay these invoices without any revenue? Will they look for other customers to take the place of your business? Will they still be able to supply your business when you recommence trading? Do you need to pay your utilities? Gas, electricity, water and even the council rates (rates are relevant if you own the buildings), all these bills still need to be paid. Since these bills are generally paid quarterly, they can be a significant strain on your cashflow, so how will you pay them? Do you need to pay your insurance premiums? There are a number of insurance policies that are essential for a wide range of businesses, from professional liability insurance to product liability insurance, vehicle insurances, property insurance, theft and burglary, tax audit insurance, employee fraud insurance, cyber insurance, and the list goes on. Do you have the cashflow to continue paying these premiums whilst not trading? So to answer the question – do you need Business Interruption Insurance? If your business has any of the above costs, then you could benefit from this type of cover. Business Interruption Insurance protects your gross profits, to keep your business running. This can be detrimental to your business and ultimately, make or break it. To decide whether Business Interruption Insurance is suitable for your business, talk to an insurance specialist today. General Advice Warning The information provided is to be regarded as general advice. Whilst we may have collected risk information, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. We recommend that you consider the suitability of this general advice, in respect of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. You should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase this financial product.

Despite a recent study ranking Australia as the 14th most cyber secure country in 2020 (up from 16th in the previous year), we still have a long way to go. That’s because this same report demonstrated that in 2020, 4.86% of our mobile phones and 11.08% of our computers are infected with malware (the USA scored just over 8.18% and 9.07% respectively). We are however, pretty high in the rankings for being prepared for cyber attacks, scoring 0.89 out of 1.0 (the UK was the highest scoring 0.93 with the USA scoring 0.92).   In comparison, the worst country for mobile malware was Iran with 52.68% infected and for computer malware was Tunisia with 23.26%; the least prepared for cyber attacks was Turkmenistan scoring only 0.11. Overall, the least cyber secure country was Algeria and the best was Denmark.   So what does all this mean for Australian businesses? In a nutshell, these statistics mean that we could and should do better to close the cyber attack gap in Australia. Whilst Australia’s computer malware attacks (11.08%) were pretty comparable with the USA (9.07%), it was still higher than the UK (7.69%), Sweden (4.03%) and Denmark (3.15%), although much better than France (15.09%).   There is no room for complacency however, because the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) has released a report that shows the number of data breaches in Australia between July and December 2019 increased by 19% to 537. Malicious or criminal attacks (including cyber attacks) were the leading cause of data breaches and rose by 2% to reach 64%. Data breaches caused by human error however, were down by 2% to 32%.   The majority of the information stolen was contact information (40.4%), followed by financial details (19.5%), identity details (15.9%), health information (12.3%), TFNs (8.2%), and other sensitive information (3.7%).   If we look at another report, one published by CHUBB , we find that 43% of SMEs have no idea what constitutes a notifiable data breach, 49% do not have plans in place to deal with a data breach, 79% believe they can recover from a data breach made by sophisticated hackers within 24 hours, and only 27% have Cyber Insurance. It is essential to have the correct Cyber Insurance policy for your business to ensure it is protected should the worst happen.   Are Australian businesses overconfident? The 79% of business who felt that they could overcome sophisticated hackers within 24 hours might like to know that the Australian Logistics company Toll suffered a cyber attack on 31st January (targeted ransomware). They had to disable their systems and use non-digital processes, negatively affecting many customers across Australia. Wool sales in Australia were also brought to a halt in early February when the T alman Software was forced offline due to a cyber attack (targeted ransomware again) that encrypted all their files. These are just two cyber attacks that occurred recently in Australia and these were big companies that thought they had done everything needed to reduce their risks. So if large national and multinational companies can be the victims of cyber attacks, SMEs could well do with lifting their game and at least reviewing their cyber action plans. Even when you have done everything possible to reduce your risks however, the final step is to take out Cyber Insurance, because no-one is completely safe from cyber hackers.   To decide if Cyber Insurance is suitable for your business, talk to an insurance specialist today.   General Advice Warning The information provided is to be regarded as general advice. Whilst we may have collected risk information, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. We recommend that you consider the suitability of this general advice, in respect of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. You should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase this financial product. 

Cyber-crime, climate change, natural catastrophes, bushfires, floods and storms are all real-world problems that businesses need to contend with in Australia. We also can’t ignore the recent COVID-19 virus that has posed significant problems for many SMEs. Then there is the Brexit challenge, as well as any trade fall outs that stem from COVID-19 and the interplay between China and the rest of the world (notably Australia, UK and US). Let’s take a look at some of the problems that face Australian businesses and how the right type of insurance cover can reduce your risks and help to mitigate potential losses. Cyber-crime and cyber insurance Cyber-crime costs the Australian economy more than $1 billion each year and it continues to climb. Recent research has found that 43% of all cyber-crime is targeted at SMEs with 53% of employees in medium sized businesses admitting to have compromised their employer’s networks. These problems stemmed from downloading apps, opening links in unverified emails and sharing these emails among work colleagues, and not updating software regularly. Opening emails and embedded links from unverified sources cost businesses more than $60 million alone in 2018. Then there’s the fake invoices that are sent to customers and the loss of personal customer information. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but the take home message is that SMEs need to have a cyber policy in place, because it can easily happen to any business. Employees also need to be consistently and regularly trained about cyber-crime and how their actions can compromise their employer’s business. However, no business is infallible, meaning that even with the best of intentions, your business may become a victim of cyber-crime. This is why all SMEs need Cyber Insurance to reduce their risks should it ever occur to their business. Inability to trade and Business Interruption Insurance Natural disasters, loss of essential equipment and even arson, are all causes of businesses being unable to trade for a significant period of time. Bushfires, storms, cyclones and floods, someone stealing machinery that’s the focal point of your production line, an arsonist setting fire to your warehouse. These are all tragedies that can put your business out of action for days, weeks or months. So who pays your bills? The building lease still needs to be paid, as well as the utility bills, suppliers, employees, work cover, and any other machinery, equipment and vehicle leases. Just because your business is unable to trade, doesn’t mean that your bills go away. This is where Business Interruption Insurance comes into play because it helps you pay these essential bills during the time you can’t trade. Always discuss these risks with an experienced insurance adviser so that your business has the cover that’s needed. What about Brexit, trade fall outs and climate change? Loss of supply chains and access to resources, Brexit, trade fall outs and climate change are all problems that may well be faced by SMEs in the near future. Your best option is to identify how these risks may affect your business and then put strategies and insurances in place to mitigate your risks. You can also leverage the expertise of your local insurance adviser who will be up to date on all potential challenges to your industry in the near future. To speak to an insurance adviser about managing your businesses risks and safeguarding it against further challenges, find your local adviser. General Advice Warning The information provided is to be regarded as general advice. Whilst we may have collected risk information, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. We recommend that you consider the suitability of this general advice, in respect of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. You should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase this financial product.