SMEs spending thousands on outsourced cyber security costs

The annual average cost for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to outsource cyber security services amounts to nearly £60,000, according to new research by CFC.

Figures published by the specialist insurance provider yesterday (25 July 2024) revealed that the monthly cost for such services amounted to £4,962.

In turn, this result in an annual spend of £59,566.

This does not include any estimation of the cost to a business of the time required by its own team to install, update or manage any technology or software as part of any outsourcing arrangement.

For the research, CFC examined the costs of a range of cyber security propositions.

“It’s a well known-fact that the biggest problem that brokers face when it comes to selling cyber insurance is price,” Jason Hart, head of proactive insurance at CFC, said.

Offering

Last year, CFC’s survey of 277 brokers revealed that clients felt cyber insurance was too expensive.

Speaking about CFC’s offering, Hart said: ”Not only do they get a promise to pay should a cyber event occur but, more importantly, they get a promise to protect their business.

”Using unique insights from threat intelligence feeds, the dark web, network scanning and our own real-life claims data, we identify potential threats and alerts customers before an event happens.”

He also said that the average value of a ransomware demand was around £147,044, although the typical cost of CFC’s cyber insurance to an SME was around £3,715.

“I would urge brokers to position our proactive cyber insurance as not just a financial safety net to their clients, but as a shield that provides real value and can address the security gap that many SMEs have,” Hart said.