CYBER INSURANCE WHY DO YOU NEED IT

Cyber insurance covers your company’s liabilities in the event of a data breach involving sensitive client data including personal information, credit card numbers, account numbers, driver’s license numbers, and health records.

What cyber insurance covers:

Businesses must secure their customers’ protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII). If the information is disclosed because of a data breach, they may be held liable. This coverage protects businesses from third-party liability and reimburses them for costs incurred because of a data breach, such as legal counsel and defense, a digital forensics team, notification costs, crisis communications, and the establishment of a call center, as well as credit monitoring for those impacted by the data breach.

Why is cyber insurance important?

Many businesses keep personal information about their customers, such as PHI and PII, as well as confidential corporate information, either for themselves or for another business. An employee benefits organization, for example, may hold personal information for the workers of dozens of companies it serves, implying that a single data breach may result in huge liability.

What is the importance of cyber insurance?

Electronic data loss, compromise, or theft can have a severe impact on a company, including the loss of customers and income. Businesses may be held accountable for losses caused by the theft of third-party information. Cyber liability insurance is essential for organizations to protect themselves from the dangers of cyber incidents, especially those linked to terrorism. Cyber-risk insurance can help with the quick response to cyber-attacks and incidents.

Hackers broke into Sony’s PlayStation Network in 2011, revealing personally identifiable information (PII) from 77 million PlayStation accounts. Users of PlayStation consoles were unable to use the service for 23 days due to security compromises. Sony had to pay approximately $171 million in costs because of the hack. A cyber insurance policy may have covered some of this expenditure, but Sony didn’t have one in place. Sony’s insurance policy only covered damage to physical property, according to a court ruling, leaving Sony to bear the full cost of cyber damages.

What kind of organizations require cyber insurance?

Businesses that hold sensitive information on the internet or computers. If your company keeps sensitive information like phone numbers, credit card numbers, or Social Security numbers online or on a computer, you might be vulnerable to a cyberattack and benefit from cybersecurity insurance.

Businesses that hold their own financial data, as well as any personal information about their customers, should at the very least seek first-party coverage. A company that is the victim of a ransomware assault, for example, may lose vital data, such as financial records, if it is unable to pay the ransom. With first-party coverage, the company’s insurer can cover a portion or all of the ransom, depending on the policy’s coverage limitations.

If you keep a lot of personal information about your clients, you should consider liability insurance, often known as third-party coverage. Cyber liability insurance, unlike first-party coverage, covers legal bills and judgments in circumstances when people sue your company for losses caused by a cyberattack. If your company’s data is stolen, some sort of information, such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers, might have a greater impact on consumers since they can be used in identity theft.

You’ll need liability coverage to pay legal fees and expenses if a customer is harmed by the data breach and decides to sue you. Liability coverage is also a realistic choice for small firms that interact with the data of other corporations.

Firms with a large client base:- Cybersecurity insurance may be especially beneficial for businesses with a huge consumer base. Certain regulatory fines that these organizations may face because of a data breach can be covered by policies. State laws generally compel corporations to notify consumers of data breaches, and first-party plans can cover this expense, which can be considered for organizations with big client bases.

Businesses that generate a lot of money and have a lot of valuable assets:- Cybersecurity insurance can considerably minimize financial risk for mature small firms with strong revenue and expensive assets. Cyber incident expenses may be difficult to forecast, and larger firms are more likely to have more valuable data, which might result in a higher ransom. Smaller organizations with limited revenue, on the other hand, may find it difficult to justify the cost of cybersecurity premiums if they assume the cost of reacting to a data breach will be less than the cost of a year’s premiums.

Cyber insurance may help protect your company in these ways.

Business interruption, income loss, equipment losses, legal fees, public relations charges, forensic investigation, and costs connected with legally mandated notifications are all costs that cyber insurance may assist your firm to recover from after a data breach. The function cyber insurance may play in protecting your firm even before a breach happens is a lesser-known advantage of cyber insurance.

Travelers, for example, advise businesses to develop, execute, and test business continuity and incident response strategies. Companies should also consider establishing a backup system for internet access and ensuring that this system is evaluated regularly for functioning. Incorporating an intrusion detection system into your network might assist businesses in responding to assaults faster.

Cyber insurance can offer coverage in the following ways:

Data that has been lost

Companies are in charge of their internet data, regardless of where it is housed. If any personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) is exposed on your premises, in an offsite data warehouse, or in the cloud of a third-party technology business, you may be held accountable.

Travelers cyber experts urge that you understand where all of your private or secret information is housed to help safeguard your company’s data. Create and test rules and processes for data collection and storage, as well as a document retention policy, to guarantee you don’t store data you don’t need.

If a data breach occurs, a Travelers cyber policy may cover breach notification and cleanup costs, depending on the retention period. It can also cover defensive costs, like replying to regulatory investigators and working with them.

Lost Devices

Because of today’s mobile workforce, laptops and other mobile devices frequently leave the office and maybe lost or exploited, exposing private or secret data. While you can’t totally avoid theft or loss, you may take efforts to safeguard and restrict the amount of data on each device, such as instituting processes for using strong passwords and requiring them to be changed regularly. Laptops should not be used to store any private or personal information. Alternatively, if necessary, just keep encrypted data or access it over a secure server connection.

If a breach occurs, Travelers cyber insurance might include Network and Information Security Liability coverage, which protects against unauthorized access to or use of data including other people’s private or personal information. Legal fees, investigative fees, and other expenditures may all add up to a lot more than the cost of a single misplaced laptop.

Requirements for Notifications

According to one poll of U.S. organizations, the cost of notifying consumers of a breach and other post-breach measures, which are required by law, may add up to $1.72 million. Travelers would recommend the client to a legal firm to act as counsel and breach coach as part of a cyber policy and assist pay such expenses, subject to the appropriate retention. When personal information is compromised, an incident breach response vendor is also advised to manage customer notifications under state legislation.

Forensics

Computer forensics specialists can assess the scope of a breach and evaluate if private customer data has been exposed. A Travelers cyber policy would reimburse the insured for computer forensic specialists, subject to any relevant retention. The policy may also cover any business losses and other expenditures incurred during the period of business restoration.

Customers of Travelers have access to risk management services, cyber security specialists, and other tools to assist them in avoiding a data breach. Cyber insurance can help your firm respond quickly and efficiently in the hours and days following a data incident.

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If you would like to know more, do get in touch as we are happy to answer any questions. Looking to improve your cybersecurity but not sure where to start? Begin by getting certified in Cyber Essentials, the UK government’s scheme that covers all the technical controls that will provide the protection that you need to help guard against criminal attacks. Or just get in touch by clicking contact us