Aon: Govt needs to cascade cyberterrorism advice to UK business

Aon, the UK’s leading insurance broker and risk management adviser, comments on the Government’s plans to set up a new Office for Cyber Security. The announcement comes as nearly a third (29%) of businesses see data security as a threat to their supply chains, according to a new survey from Aon and State of Flux, due to be released on 1 July 2009.

Alex Hindson, head of enterprise risk management at Aon, said: "It’s encouraging that the UK government is finally recognising the threat of cyberterrorism, which is increasingly listed as a key risk for companies. The government needs to support UK business by cascading advice on how to secure systems against such attacks and acting as an extension to IT functions by challenging current security measures and back up systems. Cyberterrorism is such a fast-moving area that SMEs in particular will need guidance from the government.

Andrew Swan, associate director at Aon, commented: “Companies need to take a two-pronged approach to ensure they are both physically and financially protected. Firstly, taking steps to identify and bridge security gaps in systems and, secondly, looking at insurance back up. Specialist cyber liability policies can include cover to recoup costs as a result of business interruption and help restore or replace data to put you back in your original state, but companies must check that terrorism is not excluded from the policy as this becomes an increasing threat.”