Yaksha Prashna

The Akshardhama or the conversation between Yudhishthira and Yaksha (in the form of a crane), Crane poses 33 questions in order to bring back four dead Pandavas. 

(One of the questions and answer from the conversation)

The Yaksha asked,—“What is the best of all laudable things? What is the most valuable of all his possessions? What is the best of all gains? And what is the best of all kinds of happiness?” 

Yudhishthira answered,—” The best of all laudable things is a skill; the best of all possessions is knowledge: the best of all gains is health: and contentment is the best of all kinds of happiness.”

Yaksha Prashna is synonymous to most difficult questions of life which can only be tackled by wisdom and a pure heart (dharma). Many of us must have read or seen this story several times and Yudhishthira practised what he preached all through his life.

Which brings me to the most difficult questions when normal people or Organizations are faced with the situations of cybercrime or identity theft or cyber extortion etc. all big words but do we need to understand this?

As a matter of fact, this will be the biggest problem to be faced by us in the next decade and its impact on the global economy, can be in the north of $400 billion and potential to shave off about 9% of global GDP, Cost to the global economy in the span of two years between 2014-2016 has increased from 0.62% to 0.8% and rising as we read this, massive automation and rising incidents of hacking have lead to chaotic situations for Governments, Banks, large conglomerates and unsuspecting individuals. 

Thankfully Insurance wala's are to the rescue again like Yudhisthir,
there are multiple companies offering Cyber Insurance products across the globe and raising awareness in the connected world. Coverages offered by the policies underwritten in India are following but not limited these only: for Organizations

1. BI - Business Interruption cost
2. Cyber Theft- Cyber extortion, Fund transfer fraud etc.

3. Forensic audit, compliance costs, Investigation & fines, lawyer fees, Media & PR costs.

4. Loss arising out of data theft, Multimedia coverage etc.
 

Coverage for Individuals:

There are very few companies offering this line of Insurance in India but slowly promoting the Idea of Individual cyber insurance.

Some of Coverages Constitute the following:

1.Cyber Stalking
2. IT theft
3. Social Media cover
4. Malware attack
5. Phishing 
6. Privacy & data breach by the third party

7. Unauthorized transaction

Cost of retail policy individual does not exceed 15K INR in most cases and is recommended to be covered in this aspect.

These are just fisrt step in a long Mahabharata of Cyber-Kshetra but various governments have enacted laws and some are in process like GDPR by EU (general data protection bill), Draft Data Protection bill in the making in India.

As the the problem evolves, it will pave the way for solutions and measures to protect companies and citizens by the way of Insurance and regulatory methods.
Till the complete protection is offered by laws or Insurance, follow rules to conduct yourself online because "it takes two to tango."