Non-Profits Under Siege: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Cyber Insurance and Controls

Non-Profits Under Siege: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Cyber Insurance and Controls

By Dara Gibson, CEO, Cybersecurity Readiness Advisors

  Non-profit organizations operate with limited financial resources; however, they possess sensitive data regarding donors, beneficiaries, and intellectual property, which makes them attractive targets of malicious threat actors. These agencies strive to do good for the community, while threat actors strive to cause destruction for financial gain. There are fundamental cybersecurity measures that nonprofits can implement to protect their unique vulnerabilities.

  Vulnerabilities in cybersecurity are often criticized by the technical components of the infrastructure, such as lacking firewalls or end point protection. Nonprofits may be financially constrained, which hinders them from investing in cybersecurity infrastructure, but they have additional vulnerabilities that often are overlooked by leadership and over utilized by cybercriminals. These vulnerabilities include the reliance on volunteers which creates inconsistencies on involvement and experience. Cybercriminals may also exploit the goodwill of the donors or staff, by issuing emotionally urgent requests for credentials or money.  Data breaches have severe consequences especially with the data that nonprofit organizations typically handle, for example donor financial information or the health records of beneficiaries. These serious exposures can be mitigated by implementing cybersecurity controls across the infrastructure and including additional risk management protocols.

  Cybersecurity controls may include implementing Multifactor Authentication (MFA) which is an additional method of login: providing something you KNOW, providing something you HAVE, or providing something you ARE. This additional step may prevent credential stealing and malicious login. Nonprofits also need to remember to maintain frequent backups of critical data that is stored in a separate location, to provide adequate business continuity. It is also important to regularly patch software and operating systems to address known security exposures. Finally, one of the most important strategies is training and awareness, because volunteers access the data and systems, they need to be cognizant of phishing tactics and social engineering tactics, to protect the agencies. Implementation of cybersecurity controls along with additional risk transfer mechanisms, such as cyber insurance, will allow nonprofit organizations to cast a safety net in the event of a cyber incident.

  Cyber Insurance plays a significant role in the risk management process. This type of financial protection can cover significant cost related to the cyberattack, such as data recovery, legal fees, and business interruption. Cyber insurance will also provide incident response services for the nonprofit and additional liability coverage due to system failure. There will be coverage exclusions and limitations within the policy, and these should be discussed with the insurance producer at the time of insurance acquisition. The implementation of cyber insurance must be done in conjunction with the cybersecurity controls to provide robust protection for nonprofits.

  Integrating cyber insurance and cyber controls are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary to the success of cyber event resolution. Strong cyber controls are more favorable to insurance carriers due to the fact they can reduce the severity of cyber incidents. Insurers often access the security posture of the nonprofit organization prior to issuing the insurance policy ensuring that the due diligence is completed for adequate cybersecurity infrastructure to issue adequate insurance. It is imperative that proactive cybersecurity measures and risk transfer strategies are executed to protect the valuable missions, stakeholders, and the communities that the nonprofits serve in this increasingly dangerous digital world.

www.cyberready.io

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