Cyber Liability Insurance
Data breaches and cyber-crimes are not only a major nuisance for the affected business, but also a financial burden owing to the associated fines and legal fees. It's unfortunate that these cyber-crimes mostly affect small businesses, either because they’re ignorant of the risks and assume that hackers won’t target them, or because they lack the resources to implement a solid security plan.
Being hacked, getting malicious software, and generally being a target for cyber-crime not only puts your computer systems at risk, but also exposes your employees and customers to other crimes, and risks ruining your business reputation.
Cyber liability insurance covers you and your business against internet-based liability and risks involving sensitive customer information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, account numbers, and health records.
Cyber Liability Coverage
Ideally, cyber liability should be covered by your general liability insurance. However, it is usually excluded from your general liability policy, which in its basic form, only covers bodily injuries (BI) and property damage (PD) caused by your operations, products, or services.
You can add cyber insurance to your general insurance to provide two levels of coverage: first-party coverage, for direct losses to your business; or third-party coverage, for claims and lawsuits by your clients or partners.
The coverage you obtain depends on your provider, though you can expect cyber insurance to assist with legal fees, fines, and costs associated with:
- Notifying customers about the data breach, personal data theft, or identity theft
- Repairing compromised systems
- Recovering affected data
- Restoring the identities of affected customers
- Forensic investigation - uncovering the cause/impact of the attack
- Business interruption and extortion
Generally, cyber insurance liability is intended to help you recover following the cyber-attack by mitigating all the subsequent costs.
As you conduct more and more of your business online, cyber liability insurance can give you the peace of mind knowing that you’re protected from cyber-attacks; not just from the coverage, but also because of the preparations required by the insurer to agree to insure you. Often time, the latter step is sufficient to prevent most cyber-attacks.
Contact Capital Providers Insurance Services today to assess your cyber security threats.