Why Your Business Needs Cyber Insurance
Normal business insurance or liability insurance usually excludes coverage for hacking incidents. Ransomware "business" is booming, and companies of all sizes are targets. In actuality, hackers often try to get into any network they can, and only after gaining access determine who it is and how valuable the data is, to decide how much ransom to charge. Witness the recent $22 million ransom UnitedHealth supposedly paid. In many cases it's not a matter of if but when a business will be hacked. Think of cyber insurance as disaster insurance. Hopefully you'll never need it, but it may save your company.
Cyber insurance can potentially provide coverage for:
- Data breaches
- Denial-of-service attacks
- Theft of HIPAA (health) data
- Breach of vendor-held data
- Lost income/revenue
- Coverage of fees, fines, and penalties
The insurance company often provides assistance with:
- Forensic analysis
- Breach hotline/remediation/recovery team
- Lawsuit defense/legal bills
- Vulnerability scans
- Regulatory breach reporting
Of course coverage and services, as well as pricing, vary per insurance company. Insurance can cover both first party (employee) or third party (customer or vendor) claims. Most business insurance agents also provide cyber liability insurance.
Reduce Your Risk
Standard security practices should be used, such as using MFA everywhere possible, and limiting direct external connections to the office. A monitored antivirus/security software solution is a must. ITS staff will be happy to discuss our recommendations.
Free Scan/Quote
ITS's cyber insurance agent offers a free external vulnerability scan to identify areas of improvement, and can also provide a quote for insurance based on business size/revenue. Contact our office for details and a short application.
March 2024
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