Her business was attacked by ‘ransomware’, now so common it has its own moniker. According to Verizon (publisher of the 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report) such attacks are typically opportunistic and motivated by financial gain.

“The malware gets onto your system when someone clicks on a malicious email link or visits an infected website,” Verizon said.

“Ransomware is on the rise. It involves attackers encrypting the contents of a device, rendering it useless. They then demand a ransom to unlock the data.”

Cyber insurance can cover forensic investigation, legal advice, public relations expenses, damage and computer hardware and loss of profits and extra expense during the time a business in interrupted, such as wages for staff to recreate lost databases.

Mrs Willis said even the cost of the ransom was sometimes covered in the past, until insurers were advised that such actions could be considered aiding and abetting illegal behaviour (and it made victims more open to paying a ransom).

The cover may add several hundred dollars to a premium but, like any insurance, it’s a small cost if the insuree is the one attacked. Mrs Willis is aware of a Sydney-based strata computer that had to replace all its computer hardware after a ransomware attack, at a cost of $95,000.

And while insurance may allay the pain of business data being affected, many people store their family photos on their computer and no amount of money will compensate for losing pictures of children, pets and other family members. For protection it’s a good idea swap copies of the digital family photo album with a relative.

“You could lose of lifetime of memories,” Mrs Willis said.