As you may be all too familiar, Cyberattacks hit businesses in this country every day and they’re becoming more frequent. During the Covid-19 pandemic, attacks grew and the global explosion in remote workers created more opportunities for things like phishing and ransomware.
Businesses that store personally identifiable information (PII) for employees or customers are favorite targets. PII includes any data that can be used to identify a particular individual, such as name, date of birth, email address, social security number, credit card number or bank account number. Most businesses store this sensitive customer data in the cloud. Unfortunately, criminals find this information attractive and use ransomware attacks to obtain it. These attacks are the most common reason for a cyber insurance claim, though policyholders may also file claims around phishing email scams, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and wire-transfer fraud.
Cyber Liability Insurance helps a company respond in the event of a cyberattack or data breach. The policy provides businesses with a combination of coverage options to help protect the company in the event of cyber security issues. It’s not a question of if an organization will suffer a breach, but when.
Most insurers will not cover cyber incidents as part of a general liability policy, which covers bodily injuries and property damage. Meanwhile, many cloud service providers structure contracts to limit their own liability, putting the burden of attack mostly or entirely on partners and users.
If a network or computer systems are hacked into or corrupted by a virus, cyber liability insurance can be essential in helping to cover the cost for recovery, while also covering the legal claims resulting from the breach.
What specifically does this insurance cover?
- Data compromise protection to cover employee and customer information if the data should ever be hacked, stolen, corrupted or subject to procedural errors or internal fraud.
- Legal cost protection incurred by legal reviews.
- Forensic services to assist in determining the nature, extent and perpetrators of an electronic breach.
The complexity of the technologies that businesses and organizations use has increased exponentially in recent years. Therefore, it is a constant challenge to prioritize and mitigate risk.
Perhaps governmental action could remedy the problem. But cybersecurity is not just an issue for the government. It is also incumbent upon large corporations, small businesses and individual consumers to be vigilant. Any and all are vulnerable to malicious attacks by internet criminals.
Remember, not all cyber risk policies are alike. So please reach out to the professionals at McMichael Insurance and we’ll be glad to help.
