Protect your sports organisation from cyber criminals

Sports and recreation organisations handle considerable amounts of data about their members, often containing sensitive personal information, which makes them an ideal target for cyber criminals.

Data security should be a fundamental part of your business strategy. Weak security systems could enable cyber hackers to compromise your sports organisations network, by stealing valuable data such as financial information including, card and bank account details. Even data as simple as names, addresses and dates of birth are valuable to criminals and can be sold for the purposes of identity theft.

Advice on protecting your data
Sports organisations should take precautionary steps to protect themselves and their members from the threat of cyber-attacks by:
• Conducting a risk analysis to review the information stored on your network
• Determine who has access to the organisations IT systems
• Set up difficult passwords and to change these frequently
• Implement document classification to identify categories of confidentiality
• Implement security polices to advise employees on how to best handle confidential business data
• Disable USB ports
• Ensure data is encrypted
• Ensure security software is updated regularly
• Hire an IT expert to manage security systems and carry out regular network checks
• Store information in accordance with the guidelines of the Data Protection Act (2003)

A cyber-attack could cause enormous disruption and considerable financial cost to your sports organisation. Failure to implement adequate security systems could see your sports organisation faced with negative consequences including, breach of customer confidentiality, non-compliance penalties, financial losses and compromised business reputation.

If your network has been compromised it is important you contact an IT specialist to secure your system from further intrusion by hackers. Seeking legal advice would determine the extent of the data breach and to help minimise the impact of your losses. It is essential you notify all those members whose data could have been affected so that they can inform their bank to further protect their interests. In addition, you may also be required to set up a credit monitoring service to ensure no further losses are incurred if the stolen data has been used by fraudsters.

The insurance market is responding rapidly to emerging cyber risks. A good cyber liability policy, as well as protecting you against the financial cost of an attack, will also include expert advice and crisis management assistance to ensure your organisations reputation is protected.

Taking simple steps to change procedures on how data is managed can make your systems considerably more secure.

How can we help?
Perkins Slade has experience of working directly with many National Governing Bodies. We can provide specialist advice to help your organisation review its data handling procedures and recommend how these can be further improved.

Cyber liability insurance cover can start from as little as £500 per year. For more information or to get a quote please contact your usual Perkins Slade representative or call us on 0121 698 8000.

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