The statistics speak for themselves: The number of reported cases of IT fraud against businesses increases every year, and this type of fraud affects businesses of all sizes. It is not clear exactly how many businesses are affected. Some cases are never reported, and some businesses never realise that they have been a victim of a hacker attack.

The great majority of IT fraud cases have a direct financial motive. However, IT fraudsters may also aim to steal personal data, trade secrets and other critical information that can be sold to a third party or used for extortion.

Whatever the motive, it may have serious consequences for your business to be exposed to IT fraud. In addition to financial or data losses, your day-to-day operations may be affected for a period, and it may be necessary to restore your IT systems.

Financial loss insurance

Once IT fraudsters gain access to your accounts or get you to transfer money, it is usually difficult to do anything about it. But you should be aware that banks generally do not cover theft from your business accounts. Consequently, it is important to check whether you have a business insurance policy that covers losses in connection with IT fraud.

Loss of data

As a result of some types of IT fraud, you may be cut off from access to your data, your data may be stolen or you may lose data permanently. This means that, for a period of time, you will have to run your business without the usual access to financial management systems, information about current orders, production data, etc. And losing critical data on product development, research and intellectual property will have serious consequences. So we recommend that you regularly back up data and store your backup copies offline and under secure conditions.

Impact on your reputation

Large businesses in particular run a risk that IT fraud cases will affect their reputation and cost them customers. The fear of bad publicity is also one of the reasons that some businesses do not report IT fraud.