Cyber attacks are becoming a significantly large problem for all types of organizations, and that’s why it’s not surprising that many of them are turning to cyber insurance as the main protective measure. In fact, cyber insurance is an insurance policy that helps protect organizations from fallouts from cyber attacks and hacking threads.
So, if your organization is the type that relies on the latest technology, sends and stores electronic, personal and financial data, you undoubtedly need a cyber insurance policy, and here’s why:
Data Breach Coverage
source: glassjakobson.com
Every organization stores some type of data, whether it's being online data or stored on their property, in offside data warehouses or third-party technology company clouds. But, with all the data breaches worldwide organizations face on daily basis, many of them embrace the benefits of data breach insurance policies to help them manage the financial risk from cyber threats.
This coverage is of great importance due to the high cost of data breaches, especially for small and medium businesses that can’t afford to pay that out of pocket. On top of that, a data breach insurance policy won’t only cover all of these expenses, but it’ll also safeguard your organization’s data from cyber criminals.
Affected Parties Notification Requirements
source: makeuseof.com
If an unpleasant event of data breach occurs, every organization is required by law to notify all the affected parties. This can add to the overall data breach costs, particularly as they relate to security fixes, identity theft protection for those who are impacted by the breach and protection from possible legal action.
For this purpose, many cyber insurance companies would refer the customer to a law firm to serve as counsel and breach coach as well as an incident breach response vendor to handle customer notifications while keeping with state laws when personal information is compromised.
Business Interruptions Loss Reimbursement
Almost every cyber attack leads to an IT failure that disrupts your business’s daily operations. This undoubtedly costs every organization time and money. So, as we already mentioned before, cyber liability insurance won’t only cover the costs to your business operations in the aftermath of the cyber attack such as the costs to determine the scope, restore control over and replace, restore or recollect data, but some of them will also cover your loss of income during these interruptions.
Cyber Extortion Defense
source: 4discovery.com
It’s not uncommon for organizations to get infected by all those ransomware and similar malicious software that are designed to steal and withhold key operational or personal data and hold it until a steep fee is paid. As these types of attacks increase in frequency and severity, it’s of crucial importance that organizations seek a proper cyber security insurance policy since they help in recouping losses related to cyber extortion.
Lost Devices
source: brumpost.com
Today’s mobile workforce means that laptops or any other mobile devices often leave the workplace premises and may be easily stolen or compromised. As you probably know, this can be a potential risk of exposing private or confidential data.
For this purpose, all the companies offering cyber insurances will recommend avoid storing any private or confidential data on laptops but implementing effective passwords and mandate periodic changes, storing only encrypted data or accessing it via a secure connection to a server instead.
However, cyber security insurance policies provide protection for failure to prevent unauthorized access to or use of data containing private or confidential information of others. This is due to the costs for a single laptop can include more than just the cost of the actual device, since all these unpleasant events impose legal costs as well as investigation and miscellaneous expenses.
Computer Forensic Support
When a cyber attack occurs, your organization will have to investigate in order to determine the extent of the breach, what led to it and whether private customer information is compromised. For this purpose, a cyber protection insurance policy will reimburse you for all the costs related to forensics and seeking out expert advice. On top of that, some policies will also provide 24/7 support from cyber specialists, which can be of great importance if a hack or data breach occurs.
Legal Support
The most standard coverage in cyber insurance policies is for the costs of investigating, responding to and terminating an actual or suspected data breach or other cyber incidents. This coverage often includes legal support or covering the costs associated with proper legal work following the cyber attack.
Fixing Reputational Damage
General cyber insurance policies will protect your organization from financial losses related to data breaches, but what’s the most important is that many business owners aren’t aware that the organization’s reputation is worth far more than personal assets. This is why it’s important to have the right protection in place where you need it most.
For this purpose, almost all of the companies offering cyber liability insurance policies will make sure that your organization’s reputational well being is protected by covering certain costs for public relations, media purchasing as well as other costs to mitigate the harm after a data breach or other cyber incident.
As cyber exposures and attacks are continuing to escalate, every business needs to be prepared for such strikes. So, don’t hesitate to provide your organization with a proper cyber insurance policy to protect your assets and give yourself peace of mind that the damage will be maximally reduced if an unpleasant event occurs.
