Category: Latest News

Winter is here, bringing with it the prospect of strong winds, heavy rain, frost and snow. Are your business premises prepared for winter and are you adequately insured? (more…)

The new EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is already law, with an enforcement date of 25 May 2018. By then, all businesses will need to be fully compliant or face heavy fines, which means you need to make the necessary changes now.

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Cyber-crime is on the increase. The UK’s 5.4 million small businesses are collectively attacked more than seven million times a year, costing the UK economy a staggering £5.26 billion for 2014 and 2015, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses.

With British companies reporting a 22% increase in cyber- crime in 2016, cyber security should be a top priority for all businesses.
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Download our Winter 2017 Covernotes newsletter which includes the following articles:

• Motor vehicles: instruments of horror
• Weatherproof your business against the winter
• Social engineering, spear phishing, whaling… the latest trends in cyber crime
• Are you GDPR ready?
• Recovering after a flood
• How would you handle a product recall?
• The pros and cons of offshore insurers

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There are a rising number of threats to the operation of our businesses in today’s modern and connected world, to the security and safety of assets, personal and corporate data and intellectual property rights.  News of hacks and data breaches of major companies such as TalkTalk, the NHS, Debenhams, Wonga, Equifax and Uber make the main headlines.  However, smaller companies are in reality, just as likely to be impacted by a cyber-attack, compromising confidential data or business models, stealing funds or mis-programming essential equipment.

There are many companies, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that believe they are immune yet the National Cyber Security Centre 2017 Cyber Security Breaches Survey reports 46% of small businesses and 66% of medium enterprises suffered at least one cyber-attack over the 12 month period reviewed.

The size and variety of businesses at the SME level make them a natural target for cybercrime and fraud, as companies often hold customer data with lower levels of protection than major corporations.

Focus on managing exposure to cyber risks for example; checking the suitability of firewalls, briefing staff on cyber security best practice, updating malware protection are all now key to business survival.  The insurance industry is playing an important role in supporting prudent businesses of all sizes to both improve their resilience to cyber-attacks and to help them recover if the worst should occur.

Read on for our list of what to look for in a cyber insurance policy when considering protection for your business:

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Using an insurance broker should be an obvious choice when it comes to getting the best cover for your business.

However, not all SME businesses are aware that we, as brokers act as the independent voice of the customer, have access to a wide range of products that can be selected from to match a client’s needs and can provide comprehensive claims support. For all businesses, but particularly for an SME, who has so many other things to think about in their business, the added value of building a relationship with a broker can bring large benefits. (more…)

Food businesses need to ensure that the requirements of food hygiene law are achieved while maintaining a ‘reasonable temperature’ in the workroom.

There is not a conflict in law. Generally food hygiene law regulates the temperatures of food while health and safety law regulates the air temperature of the workroom. The few exceptions where hygiene law does specify a maximum air temperature can be accommodated by well-known techniques such as localised refrigerated enclosure. (more…)

Terrorism has come to dominate the news and political agenda ever since the fateful September 11^th attacks, when images of hijacked planes flying into the World Trade Center were broadcast to horrified audiences across the globe.

The world has changed dramatically in the past 15 years, and with it, the nature of terror. As the tragedies in France and recent UK events have demonstrated, anyone anywhere can become a victim.

Commercial property owners need to be aware of the types of threats they now face and take adequate precautions to ensure their assets, tenants and the general public, are protected as far as possible and that site specific ‘stay safe’ emergency plans are developed and implemented to mitigate the risks and react as necessary should an incident occur. (more…)

As social media use becomes increasingly ingrained in our daily lives, the potential for something we post to be taken out of context or misconstrued is only going to increase.

When adults are being sued for negative yelp reviews and parents are being held liable for their child’s Facebook use, it seems the more active your family is on the Internet—and particularly social media—the greater the potential you could have to defend yourself from a lawsuit.

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