What Is Cyber Insurance?
Cyber Insurance is a specialist insurance which is designed to help your business to recover financially after a data security breach, with potentially serious losses that can range from business interruption, product damage, loss of revenue, legal costs, public relations costs, and other costs associated with legal mandated notifications and required forensic analysis. Your company might also be forced to reimburse third-party vendors and employees whose personal information or data has been stolen. In addition, your business might be required to make a public apology or even retract false information published online, resulting in lost customers, and the loss of customers’ goodwill. This scenario is why it is important that you consider protecting your business against cyber theft, which can occur through several channels.
While there is no way to stop a cyber attack from occurring, a company should be proactive in its response to ensure that it will not interfere with the normal operations of your business. Your company should determine if the risk of a breach is high enough to warrant the investment in data security, which could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Cyber insurance should be considered for any business that stores sensitive data, such as financial records or customer credit card numbers, because the cost of such an insurance policy would likely be less than the value of the data that is at risk.
How Does Cyber Insurance Work?
Cyber Insurance works like most other insurance policies, you pay an insurance premium, which an actuary calculates based upon the type of information involved and risks involved with your business. The insurance company may require some level of ethical hacking including penetration testing to be implemented as part of the policy to identify potential weaknesses in the business and its infrastructure. The insurer may also some level of training to ensure that staff members are aware of cyber attacks and actions which they can take regarding ensuring they reduce the risks to the organisation. If the business does get hacked, then the insurer will pay out either a monthly payment or a lump sum depending on the impact of the hack and the costs involved in repairing it, along with potential reputation damages which may be incurred.
With the purchase of such a policy, you would be covered not only for the damages caused by a breach but also for the costs of restoring your business to a comprehensive plan to protect against future breaches, should one occur. Such comprehensive plans would consist of software programs that will block hackers and other forms of malicious software from accessing your system, computer networks that are highly secured to prevent unauthorised access, back up systems that will protect sensitive documents, networks that are password protected to prevent users from gaining unauthorised access, and servers that are protected from firewalls and malware to prevent the damage from spreading to your business’ servers.
Such comprehensive programs will also prevent your data from being compromised, which can occur due to a variety of reasons, ranging from human error to software glitches. Some common causes of data corruption are malicious virus infections, keystroke capture programs (KAP) and data file corruptions. In order to avoid such risks, you should update your software, network security, and servers regularly to ensure that they are always secure and safe.
Security breaches are not something that can easily be prevented, but with proper protection, you can avoid them completely. A comprehensive program can help you avoid potential damage that could compromise your business ‘reputation, which could result in lost business and the loss of customer loyalty, loss of clientele, and the loss of future sales, as well as the loss of your business’ reputation as a whole.
With a comprehensive plan, you will be able to recover financially, quickly and fairly after a breach, making it possible for you to keep your business afloat without incurring significant financial loss. If you do not have a plan, you can still recover in a short period of time, although this could require the assistance of your insurance broker. The insurance company would work with you to determine the best course of action to cover your needs and make sure that your business is back on track.
Where can I buy cyber insurance?
Cyber insurance is available from a wide number of different insurance brokerages and insurance based platforms, it is always recommend that you shop around for insurance policies and understand the various exclusions which may apply before buying a policy.
Cyber attacks are not something that you can afford to ignore, so it is important that you protect your data and keep your data secure. in order to avoid costly mistakes, such as downtime. By getting a comprehensive data security system that protects your company’s database and files, you can ensure that no one has access to information that could potentially affect your business, even if they are not authorised to access it.
Sigma Cyber Security work closely with a number of insurers implementing cybersecurity training, implementing cybersecurity strategies and much more. Get in touch with our team today to discuss your cybersecurity requirements.