By: Cyber Security South Africa

Ransomware is designed to completely encrypt a victim’s file system, potentially causing an irreversible loss of data. Furthermore, an increasing number of cybercriminals are utilising ransomware to extract money out of victims. In the past 12 months alone there has been a seven-fold increase in ransomware attacks and 51% of businesses have been impacted by ransomware. 

“This poses a critical problem, as attackers continue to leverage vulnerabilities in the cyber-security profiles of both businesses and individuals. What is needed is a multi-pronged approach to identifying vulnerabilities and protecting consumers from these attacks,” says Simon Campbell-Young of Cyber Security South Africa (CSSA).

Cyber Security South Africa has partnered with MyCyberCare and  Commercial Crime Concepts (C3), underwriting on behalf of Lombard Insurance, to launch a standalone ransomware insurance offering that is not only defensive, but very importantly, is offensive in its approach to mitigating the impact of ransomware. 

This strategic partnership brings together the individual skill sets, experience and expertise of the three parties in a symbiotic manner that provides multiple benefits for its consumers. C3 is a specialist commercial crime insurance underwriter and Lombard Insurance is an established South African insurer known for providing innovative niche products . Cyber Security South Africa is a local distribution partner for leading cyber-security solutions; and MyCyberCare is a specialist provider of personal and SMME online cyber insurance, cyber detection and cyber monitoring solutions.

“CSSA and MyCyberCare provide a strong, tried and tested IT backbone that offers a risk mitigation product stack and incident response services. And when combined with C3’s well known expertise in the specialist commercial crime insurance environment, we are able to offer a robust anti-ransomware technology solution that is built specifically for the SMME sector,” says Campbell-Young.

The bespoke anti-ransomware solution provides new and small business owners and entrepreneurs with a strong and affordable defence against a number of cyber-attack strategies. The solution includes a number of CSSA and MyCyberCare products, coupled with a Dark Web monitoring and advanced threat detection solution from Digimune (powered by ZeroFOX). Together these technologies offer SMMEs solutions that enhance their defensive and offensive posture. The defensive “tech stack” is coupled with an insurance policy so that, should the client still become the victim of a ransomware attack, post breach response services are provided. In the event that the post-breach services are unsuccessful in restoring normal operations then C3 will pay the required ransom, up to a maximum of R50 000.

“We are aware that companies are pressed for time and do not want to spend unnecessary time wading through reams of legal terminology, and complicated insurance proposal forms, so we have developed a product that both encapsulates a plain language policy wording and adopts a layman’s approach to the onboarding process. Because we are providing the protections, there is no underwriting process, and this simplicity of enrolment is complemented by the advanced protection provided by the CSSA/MyCyberCare tech bundle, all of which make it a highly desirable asset in any small business’s armoury against cyber-crime,” says Gregg Smith, Managing Director of C3.

Commercial Crime Concepts is a juristic representative of Lombard Insurance Company, an authorised financial services provider, FSP1596