A lack of business resilience is potentially devastating. In April 2018, youTalk-insurance reported the results of several independent surveys, which revealed that 43% of British SMEs admit to having no business continuity, disaster recovery or crisis management plans.

The Prince’s Responsible Business Network recently challenged SMEs to an online test which focused on three of the largest areas that could affect businesses: cyberattacks, civil unrest, and floods. Two of these are already facts of life for many business owners.

youTalk-insurance said that an alarming 46% of UK businesses had suffered a cyberattack or cybersecurity breach within the previous 12 months. Barclays reported that 95% of UK business leaders consider cybersecurity to be very or quite important to their business, yet 45% do not have a formal cybersecurity strategy.

Flooding has become expected or likely on many sites, and such events are widely reported in the media each year.

An organisation’s failure to ensure business resilience can have life-changing consequences for the business owner and employees. If there were a wider attack or natural disaster that impacted regional business groups, the social and economic impact would be far-reaching.

Cliff Amos, a Director at Home Counties Insurance Services, noted: “Insurance policies have caught up with these threats, and should always be discussed with your business insurance broker. Directors know if they have sites located in an area at risk of flooding, but cyberthreats should also be treated seriously by all business leaders.

“46% of UK businesses having cybersecurity attacks or breaches is bad enough, but earlier this month the National Cyber Security Centre announced that the problem is growing, with the emergence of new threats such as theft from cloud storage and cryptojacking, in which computers are hijacked to create cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

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