Verlingue reports £121,807 costs after cyber attack

The cost, which was listed as an exceptional item in the document, came to £363,161 in total but was mitigated by cyber insurance cover.

The directors noted in the document: “The costs relating to this incident have been recognised as extraordinary costs for a total amount of £363,161. However, the company benefits from insurance cover for this type of risk, an accrued income was also recognised at the end of 2021 in the amount of £241,356 and the net cost of £121,807 is included in operating costs.”

On the cyber issue the directors detailed: “The attempted attack was stopped and contained very quickly thanks to Verlingue’s detection and security systems.

“The situation was managed in line with the company’s business continuity plan, with the support of cyber security experts. To guarantee the integrity of systems and data the group decided to carry out a full technical analyses requiring suspension of certain elements of IT and some operational activities for a period of two weeks.”

Report

Cyber breaches must be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.

The directors added: “The incident was reported to the appropriate regulators who were completely satisfied with the actions taken and closed off their investigations without further enquiries.”

In a statement published ahead of the Companies House document becoming available Verlingue UK revealed that profit before tax slipped to £2.9m for 2021 from £3m in the previous year, a decrease it said was due to investment in the business.

Verlingue UK was formed following the merger of ICB Group and Finch Insurance Brokers. Verlingue, a France-based family owned broker, had backed Finch since 2007 and added ICB Group to its business in 2018, but it wasn’t until the year before the pandemic that they merged.

The organisation is the latest broker to be targeted by hackers.

In 2021 Aon was hit by attackers. Aston Lark business, DNA was attacked in September 2021 and One Call fell victim to a ransomware incident.

In 2020 both Ardonagh Group and Gallagher were hit by separate attacks which saw Ardonagh take remedial action and Gallagher take some systems offline for a period.

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