Criminal Data Theft
The consequences of a hacker attack are more serious than most of us imagine.
Julia Bestmann
Ass. jur., Fachbereich HUK / Financial Lines
Loss of Trust and Data Theft
In the case of personal data theft, you are obliged to inform your tenants about the data tapping. The first consequence: an enormous loss of trust. And you have to admit that this is justifiable. Nobody wants to find out that their address, their full name, birth date, possibly data from their partner and children in combination with account information and information about the monthly rent payment (which is an indication about their income) has fallen into the hands of criminals. The anticipated loss of personal data is already cause for an obligation to report (§§ 42a, 43 of the German Federal Data Protection Act, BDSG): authorities and affected persons (the tenants in your case) are to be informed immediately and effectively.
Damage caused by business interruption
The resulting data chaos causes at least hourly work interruptions. If hackers paralyse programmes or entire systems, your operation may be forced to shut down for up to several days. Apart from the costs of IT and administration, you will incur additional damages caused by business interruption. Even hardware connected to your IT can be damaged by the attack. In the worst case, it must be completely replaced.
Protection
How are security breaches created?
The biggest risk factor are your own employees – but it is generally completely unintentional. Inexperienced use of USB flash drives, accidental opening of spam emails, private surfing on defective websites – many situations can be the door opener to harmful viruses and malware in general. Internal educational work, awareness raising and sensible rules to do with the handling of external data carriers are therefore an indispensable addition to any digital virus protection.
Was is insured?
- Attacks on electronic data or information-processing systems
- Unauthorised access to electronic data
- An act or omission which leads to a violation of data protection regulations.
We are happy to personally advise you: contact your account manager to find out about the preventative measures and insurance possibilities in the area of cyber security.
