Insurance major American International Group (AIG), along with cyber security company IASME Consortium and insurance broker Sutcliffe & Co, has introduced new cyber product for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to support the UK government’s new Cyber Essentials scheme.

The new product provides benefits such as two years credit monitoring to customers, whose personal data may have been stolen, and also meets the costs of notifying customers of an attack.

It will also cover the costs of repairing IT systems and restoring data, following a cyber attack, as well as meet costs of PR to restore reputational damage.

In addition, the product is offering benefits such as paying fines and penalties, if insurable under law, and meeting legal costs incurred, as a result of cyber attack.

AIG UK Cyber, TMT manager Raheila Nazir said the smaller organisations are seen as a back door entry to large organisations by hacktivists, which is why strict contractual obligations are often stipulated.

"If an organisation can demonstrate they have assessed such risks and taken steps to mitigate them they can stay ahead of the sophisticated nature of cyber attacks which will reassure the organisations they want to do business with," Nazir added.

The government has designed the scheme to encourage all the businesses to build cyber security in their companies by focusing on five critical security controls.