Why Your Organization Needs Cyber Liability Insurance

Webinar: Why Your Organization Needs Cyber Liability Insurance

What do you know about cyber liability insurance? Do you know whether you need it? Is it included in your general coverage? If not, can improved cybersecurity qualify you for coverage or even lower premiums?

Haven’t invested in cyber risk insurance yet?

Or maybe you have, and your policy is renewing soon.

Either way, you shouldn’t put off the process of assessing your cybersecurity to ensure you qualify for ongoing coverage.

Your cyber risk insurance policy covers your costs of recovery after you get hit by malware. Cyber risk insurance plays a key part in your response to threats like ransomware.

Find out everything you need to know about cyber risk insurance in our latest webinar:

Cybercrime Has Never Been More Common Or Dangerous

The cybercrime landscape is getting more unpredictable and complex every day.

Cybercriminals are finding more effective ways to infiltrate business networks and steal critical business data, leading to an ongoing rise in both rates and damages.

• 23,775 complaints of BEC were filed with the FBI last year with losses resulting in $1.7 billion
• Cybercrime has increased by 600% since the beginning of the global pandemic.
• The average payment following an attack is now north of $300K—up 171% since 2020
• 40% of Ransomware now exhibits data extortion capabilities
• Ransomware downtime costs an average of $8,500/hour
• Ransomware claims a new victim every 14 seconds

What Is Cyber Liability Insurance?

Cybersecurity insurance is a relatively new type of protection designed specifically to help cover the potentially massive expenses associated with an unavoidable data breach. It can be a worthwhile investment, so long as you know how it works.

The somewhat inevitable nature of modern cybercrime has led businesses to consider cyber liability insurance as a final layer of reassuring protection. In fact, it’s becoming more and more necessary, as many insurance providers have begun drawing a clear line between normally covered losses, and those incurred by cybercrime-related events. That means that if your cybersecurity doesn’t meet the standards of your insurance provider, you may not be as well covered as you think.

Often referred to as cyber liability or data breach liability insurance, cyber liability insurance is a type of stand-alone coverage. It’s designed to help businesses cover the recovery costs associated with any kind of cybersecurity incident including

• Breach And Event Response Coverage: A very general and high-level form of coverage, this covers a range of costs likely to be incurred in the fallout of a cybercrime event, such as forensic and investigative services; breach notification services (which could include legal fees, call center, mailing of materials, etc.); identity and fraud monitoring expenses; public relations and event management.
• Regulatory Coverage: Given that a range of organizations (such as The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, and more) have a hand in regulating aspects of cyber risk in specific industries, there are usually costs that come with defending an action by regulators This covers the costs associated with insufficient security or “human error” that may have led to a privacy breach. Examples may include an employee losing a laptop or e-mailing a sensitive document to the wrong person.
• Liability Coverage: This type of coverage protects the policyholder and any insured individuals from the risks of liabilities that are a result of lawsuits or similar claims. Put simply, if you’re sued for claims that come within the coverage of the insurance policy, then this type of coverage will protect you.
• Cyber Extortion: This type of cybercrime event is generally a form of a ransomware attack, in which a cybercriminal keeps encrypted data inaccessible (or, alternatively, threatens to expose sensitive data) unless a ransom is paid. Coverage of this type addresses the costs of consultants and ransoms, including cryptocurrencies, for threats related to interrupting systems and releasing private information.

Does Cyber Liability Insurance Offer Complete Protection Against Cybercrime?

A common misconception is that a cyber liability insurance policy is a catch-all safety net, but that’s simply not the reality. Without a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy in place, a business may not qualify for a policy in the first place.

Furthermore, in the event of a hack, a business may not qualify for full coverage if their cybersecurity standards have lapsed, or if they can be found to be responsible for the incident (whether due to negligence or otherwise).

The core issue is that as cybercrime becomes more common and more damaging, insurers will become more focused on finding ways to deny coverage. That’s why you need to ensure your cybersecurity is up to par.

These are just a few of the requirements that insurance companies may hold you to in order to qualify for a policy, as well as coverage in the event of an incident:

• Application Whitelisting
• Content Filtering
• Data Loss Prevention
• DNS Filtering
• Email Filtering
• Employee Awareness Training
• Endpoint Protection
• Incident Response Plan
• Multi-Factor Authentication
• Patch Management
• Penetration Tests
• Perimeter Firewalls
• Security Info & Event Management
• Security Awareness Training
• Vulnerability Scans
• Web Filtering

3 Steps To Qualifying For Cyber Liability Insurance

• Assess your infrastructure: The best way for you and your team to determine the kind of coverage that is best for your organization is to understand your IT infrastructure. By evaluating your systems from top-to-bottom, you’ll have a clear idea of all the different access points that could be leaving your network vulnerable to threats.
• Remediate your vulnerabilities and risks: Don’t forget to look into how investing in your cybersecurity could save you money on premiums. Open up a dialogue about it with your potential cyber liability insurance provider and see what they suggest.
• Continually reassess: Next, it’s best practice to conduct a risk assessment and an impact analysis. Carefully review all your organizational assets—including financial data, customer information, and intellectual property. Categorize assets according to risk and make considerations for the potential impacts that a data security event could have on all aspects of your business.

Expert IT Support To Assist With Your Cyber Liability Insurance Needs

Need help assessing and improving your business’ cybersecurity before you sign up for an insurance policy?

The TLC Tech team provides cybersecurity and technology services for organizations like yours—we are available to help you develop a robust cybersecurity defense.

We can ensure you qualify for a policy and minimize the chance that you’ll have to make a claim on your cyber liability insurance. Get in touch with our team to get started.