Cyber Liability Coverage
Cyber attacks are on the rise. Cybersecurity Ventures claims that “a cyber attack will occur every 11 seconds in 2021.” Many business owners think, “that can’t happen to me, I’m not big enough, or we have security protocols.” With cybercrimes on the rise and the sophistication of those crimes also increasing, it’s time to look not only at your policies but also your practices.
The original anti-virus software provider, Norton, there are certain steps every business should take to protect themselves from a cyberattack:
- Do not provide personal information when answering an email, unsolicited phone call, text message, or instant message. Phishers will try to trick employees into installing malware or gain intelligence for attacks by claiming to be from IT. Be sure to contact your IT department if you or your coworkers receive suspicious calls.
- Maintaining a strong firewall and keeping your security software up to date is critical.
- Employ content scanning and filtering on your mail servers. Inbound emails should be scanned for known threats and should block any attachment types that could pose a threat.
- If traveling, alert your IT department beforehand, especially if you’re going to be using public wireless Internet. Make sure you use a trustworthy Virtual Private Network (VPN) when accessing public Wi-Fi.
- To properly prepare for the possibility of a cyber attack, be sure to back up your computer to a hard drive that is not connected to the internet. This “air gap” will prevent the hard drive from being infected. This does not work if you leave the hard drive plugged into your machine all the time. Better to set a time in the week to back up and do so regularly.
- Educate your staff. Have a clear protocol about opening attachments from unknown senders.
- Employ an IT protocol where the staff knows the IT team by name and IT never asks for codes unless they have verified in-person.
- Subscribe to updates from reliable sources like: https://www.antiphishing.org/ to stay on top of the most pervasive forms of cyberattacks.
- Keep patches up to date.
- Use password encryption like LastPass.com to employ strong passwords across the network.
If all these steps fail: ensure that you have cyber coverage!
What does Cyber Liability cover?
First-party coverage
- Immediate expenses related to the cyber breach.
- Notifying employees
- Notifying the public
- Marketing and PR response (hiring a media crisis manager)
- Extortion money
- Repairing damage to software and hardware
- The cost of business interruption
- Missed income while operations are suspended
Third-party coverage
- Defend against lawsuits and legal claims
- Regulatory body fines
- Media liability claims
- Copyright infringement
- Breach of contract
- Negligence
What does Cyber liability NOT cover?
- Bodily injury and property damage claims
- Criminal activity
- Employees being tricked into transferring company funds
- Loss of property
As you look at your coverage, think of the potential for cybersecurity issues, evaluate your tolerance for risk, and take the time to look at your policies in detail. As experts, we at Competitive Edge can tell you where you are vulnerable and what the risk might cost you. From there, it is your decision to accept the risk or mitigate it with coverage.