Why do I need cyber insurance?

Sensitive information and assets to protect

Cyber insurance is important because businesses increasingly rely on IT systems, and in many cases they are critical to operations.
Law practices hold highly sensitive information, such as:

• confidential client records, personal information and case files
• commercially sensitive documents
• trust account details and transaction data
• litigation strategies and intellectual property.

Also many law practices and conveyancers hold client funds or transfer large sums, which puts them at even greater risk.

Law practices are being targeted

Law practices have become attractive targets for cybercriminals seeking financial gain, data theft, or business disruption.
These threats are also increasing in frequency, scale and sophistication.
Cybercriminals are now leveraging AI to create more convincing phishing campaigns, and to automate and scale attacks faster than ever before.

You may believe that your practice is too small or insignificant to be targeted.
Perhaps you think your practice is safe because you have effective cyber security systems and practices, robust data protection, verified backups, frequent staff training, and even dedicated IT security resources.

However, it is likely just a matter of time until your practice is targeted by a cyber attack.
What is important is how prepared your practice is to respond when an incident does occur.

Significant consequences of underinsurance

From ransomware to data breaches, a cyber incident or attack on your practice can have significant financial and reputational consequences.
According to the Insurance Council of Australia, businesses are significantly underinsured with respect to cyber risks.

Many law practices in NSW or QLD can access a basic cyber insurance policy with a minimal $50,000 limit.
A single cyber incident could easily exceed that amount, once you factor in all the direct costs to your practice:

• Business interruption - lost revenue over days to weeks, due to inaccessible systems or client data and staff being retasked.
• IT forensic investigation
• Client notification costs
• Legal advice
• Data recovery
• Ransomware response or extortion
• Regulatory reporting, investigations, and possible fines
• Public relations and reputation management

Third party liabilities can be large

A serious cyber incident could also lead to significant liability for your practice from damages to your clients and other impacted third parties.
You may believe these costs are covered by your practice's professional indemnity insurance (PII), typically with a $2 million limit.
However consider whether your practice's third party liability from a cyber incident might:

• exceed that limit, perhaps because your practice holds substantial client funds in trust, transfers large sums (e.g. conveyancing), or arranges large commercial contracts; or
• be fully or partially excluded from your PII cover because:
  • it was not directly from the provision of legal services, such as in a multi-disciplinary practice, or
  • it involves specific cases of fraudulent or criminal activity?

In such cases it would be prudent to obtain additional cyber cover for your practice.

Concerning statistics and trends

According to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)'s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)'s latest 2024-2025 Cyber Threat Report:

• More than 84,700 cybercrime reports were recorded over the year.
• On average a cybercrime is reported in Australia every 6 minutes.
• Ransomware attacks and data breaches are increasing.
• The average self-reported cost of cybercrime losses for businesses is now $80,850 - a significant 50% increase overall.
  • Small businesses - $56,600 (up 14%)
  • Medium businesses - $97,200 (up 55%)
  • Large businesses - $202,700 (up 219%)

References:

• ASD - ACSC - Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024-2025
• Insurance Council of Australia - Cyber Risk
• ALPMA - Australian law firms are underprepared and vulnerable to global cyber threats, survey reveals
• Insurance Business Australia - Cyber claim costs rising for SMEs in ANZ
• PEXA - What is the threat?
• CYBLE - AI Threat Landscape 2026

ABC comprehensive cyber cover

Cyber insurance provides a layer of financial protection and rapid cyber incident response to minimise damage and reputational harm.

• Gain reassurance with broad cyber cover with limits suitable for your practice.
• Protect your clients, your finances and business continuity, and your reputation.
• Access expert cyber incident response support 24/7/365 - ready whenever you need it.

Up to $3 million cyber cover

We can provide you with a range of limits up to $3 million of cyber insurance cover.
This is designed to protect against the direct and third party financial losses resulting from a broad range of cyber threats and exposures.

Our comprehensive cyber cover includes:

• Common cyber risks - such as data breaches, system damage, network security, identity theft.
• Cyber crime risks - such as theft of funds, including client funds, and extortion.
• Associated liability - such as business interruption, privacy and media liability.
• Cyber incident response support - access specialists 24/7/365 to help you in the event of a cyber incident.
• Globally trusted - award winning cover trusted by more than 100,000 businesses in over 75 countries.

If you’d like more information then please click here to contact us.

Get a Quote

If you’d like a cyber insurance quote for your practice then please apply online.
We will then contact you to provide your quote and any other information that you may require.

We’ve got you covered … it’s as simple as ABC.