Cyber Insurance: Free Yourself From Liability

No matter how many preventative measures you have in place, there’s always a risk of cyber attacks or data breaches. Whether you already have a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) or not, it’s always a smart business decision to consider adding cyber insurance to your cybersecurity protocol.

If you’re in the medical field, the need for insurance is even more important. Many cyber criminals target electronic protected health information (or ePHI) due to the profitability and large amounts of data readily available. Having insurance will help you recover quicker in the event of a data breach, as well as protect your clients’ data from becoming compromised in the long term. Even if you’re not involved with the healthcare industry, it’s important to look for insurance policies that cover your security needs.

Your cyber risk depends on your pre-existing cybersecurity framework and how strong your infrastructure is. The less secure your environment is from the start, the more likely you’ll be to suffer from ransomware, phishing or other social engineering attacks. Your average yearly risk of a data breach, regardless of industry, is slightly less than 30%. This means that nearly one-third of organizations will experience a breach in a given year.

It’s important to consider the scenarios in which insurance would benefit your organization. Cyber insurance can help you should the following events occur:

• Your business’ computers get a virus that exposes private, sensitive information.
• Customers or patients sue your group after your business loses PII or PHI.
• You’re faced with high public relations costs to help protect your business’ reputation after a data breach.

There’s a few different types of insurance, including cyber liability and data breach insurance. Breach insurance can help with costs associated with notifying affected customers, employees or patients, hiring a PR firm, or offering credit monitoring services to victims. There’s optional coverages that include extortion coverage or business income coverage. Cyber liability insurance on the other hand is generally recommended for large businesses, and helps cover financial losses due to attacks, privacy investigations or lawsuits following a cyber attack.

A multitude of factors can impact how much your cyber insurance costs, which is generally not one standard price. Costs can depend on things like the number of customers, clients or patients you have, the type of personal data and information you store, your revenue and claims history.

Regardless of if you have a strong or weak infrastructure, having cyber coverage is an added layer of protection that can assist you financially in the event of a catastrophe. If you’re looking to purchase cyber insurance, you can contact us at 585-582-1600 and ask about our Breach Prevention Platform which offers an add-on for cyber insurance with a coverage of $250k to $1M.