Thurrock businesses were shocked to learn last Thursday from Police and Crime Commissioner Nick Alston their insurance might not cover rising cyber-crime.

Thurrock businesses at a networking meeting last week discovered their existing insurance policies might not cover telephone scams, cyber-exploitation and other hacking attacks.

Cyber-crime – or internet fraud - has been rocketing over the past few years, and Essex Chambers of Commerce and Thoroughly Thurrock have been working with police to tackle the problem.

The networking meeting, which had some ‘tense moments’, was held to boost awareness of the ‘alarming increase’ in internet fraud targeted at businesses.

Mr Alston CBE said, “The numbers of cyber-crime incidents and internet-enabled fraud cases are increasing and this is a real concern.

“Essex Police is taking this seriously, but it is difficult for police to prevent all of these crimes. So we need businesses to be careful and take reasonable precautions. “Firstly, by looking at the technology and having sensible levels of IT security.

“Secondly, by making your staff aware of internet fraud and particularly to ensure they really know who they are communicating with by phone or the internet.”

Caroline Garrow of the South Essex Insurance Bureau explained most standard business insurance policies did not cover internet fraud.

New national figures presented by Ms Garrow showed only two per cent of large firms across the country are covered for internet fraud, and zero per cent of small businesses.

One Thurrock medium-sized business owner described being caught on the phone by a man impersonating someone else and trying to get access to his business bank account.

Spotting the fraud, he reported it to police before his company was damaged and changed his insurance policy.

Cyber-exploitation is also on the increase, where hackers use ‘malware’ to send emails that look like they come from within the company.

One click on the email, driven, as Ms Garrow explained by human curiousity, and the hackers can lock down data and give business owners a time-window of 72 hours to cough up thousands – or they will destroy all the companies’ data.

Thoroughly Thurrock hosted the event with the Essex Chamber of Commerce.

For more help and guidance Nick Alston pointed businesses towards the Government 10 step guide to cyber security at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-risk-management-a-board-level-responsibility