If you are a business owner that relies on technology to run your business, then the simple answer is yes, you should strongly consider Cyber Insurance!
It helps your business to recover losses and associated costs resulting from large-scale breaches, business interruption, ransomware and other types of cyber attacks.
Whatever the size of your company, you probably depend on electronic systems to help run your business. It might be selling online, using office applications and email or in some cases, your whole business might be IT systems driven.
The myth that only big businesses suffer cyber attacks or cyber crime is simply not true. Small businesses are just as exposed, sometimes more so as they don’t have an IT department or bigger budgets for security software.
Businesses of all sizes are being targeted. Some companies believe that the data they hold isn’t worth stealing and that they’re unlikely to need protection. However, think what information you hold. Business details? Postal addresses? Named individuals and email addresses? Invoicing details? Supplier details? Employee data such as payroll and other HR records?
Another thing to consider:
It’s also important to understand that it isn’t just hackers that are a threat to your business data.
Human error can also play a big part, most employees have laptops and mobile devices nowadays, which can easily be left on public transport, in a taxi or stolen from your home or car. That would also expose your business, employee and client data to cyber crime – and cyber insurance would help protect against this.
What types of cyber insurance are there?
First-party insurance
First-party cyber insurance covers your business’s own assets. This policy pays out for direct and indirect costs if you lose money, data, software, intellectual property or customers to cybercrime – either from the direct attack, or from the business downtime and reputational damage it causes. It can also cover the cost of response efforts, such as setting up an emergency call centre to notify your customers of the breach.
Third-party insurance
Also known as cyber liability insurance, this covers the assets of others, e.g. your customers. For example, hackers may steal customer information, damage their data, block their accounts, or tamper with their profiles and websites. Like any liability insurance, third-party policies will cover the costs you’re legally liable to pay, including those related to investigation, legal defence, civil damages and compensation.
Summary
With all this in mind, it’s no surprise that Cyber Insurance is the fastest growing policy in the UK as businesses large and small are becoming more aware of the threats of cyber crime to their businesses – a major incident could virtually bring your company to a standstill, with major losses of revenue and threat of further legal action which could bring a business to its knees.
Please do call Insurance Connections to find out more about Cyber Insurance and obtain a no obligation quotation. 01270 449449 or email [email protected]