What Kind of Insurance Can Your Business Get for Potential Data Loss?

We want to talk a little bit about cyber liability insurance and why it’s important that your business understands what is covered and what isn’t. It’s something that no business actually wants to talk about as the worst-case scenario is often a bit too unnerving to consider.

If you’ve never heard of cyber liability insurance, it’s insurance that allows you to pay a company for protection against events that might cause data loss or other similar damage to your computing infrastructure. We know what you’re thinking--”That’s why I pay for security software, like antivirus and firewalls.” While it’s true that the two are somewhat conceptually similar, it’s not always so simple.

Let’s say that a hacker has stolen data from a company. That company then becomes liable for the data that’s been stolen, whether it’s personally identifiable information, medical, or financial data. A perfect example of this is the Equifax breach, which exposed the credit information over a hundred million consumers. Equifax was able to stay in business after one of the worst data breaches in history, although it is still relatively early in the process. Sources have stated that their cyber liability insurance would have covered up to $150 million worth of restitution, but with over 140 million people’s personally identifiable information being exposed, the liability will should easily blow past that.

Chances are that your business doesn’t deal with 14,000 customers, let alone 140 million, but cyber liability insurance is an effective backup plan if your network or infrastructure is breached, and your customer’s sensitive data is stolen. Responsible businesses will have defensive tactics installed to protect the data from direct assault. One such solution is an antivirus. Depending on the product that you use, or who offers it, any damage done by a data breach or virus on your network might only be covered under incredibly specific circumstances. If the antivirus crashes, or if it’s not up to date, the insurance provider may not be liable, and will roundly refuse to reimburse your organization in the event that it is inundated with malware; or is the victim of a data breach. As true with any insurance, if the situation doesn’t line up with the language in the agreement, they are not beholden to honor a claim.

Of course, we’re not insurance professionals, nor do we pretend to be. We just want to make sure that you know where your business stands on cyber liability insurance, and what you can do to increase your awareness. There are many reasons why your business would decide that they need cyber liability insurance. With data now being viewed as more of a commodity than ever, you are seeing organizations invest more in the protection of their data. Since any situation in which cyber liability insurance would trigger would have resulted in data being stolen of lost, companies need to manage all the negative aspects associated with losing customer’s data, which outside of the obvious data loss, includes ensuring that their organizational reputation isn’t completely toxic to new and existing customers.

You can start by making sure that your business’ antivirus is always up to date for the latest security threats. XFER can be counted on to keep your antivirus ready to tackle all of the latest threats your organization faces. We can remotely patch and secure your company servers, workstations, and network components so that they’ll be secure against all manners of viruses, malware, and other threats.

Remember, we’re not insurance experts, but we do know our way around technology, and are experts in protecting organizations against the cyber threats they face. To learn more about how we can help you keep your technology from being a pain in the neck, reach out to us at 734-927-6666 / 800-GET-XFER.