COVID-19 caused a major shift in business technology. More people are working from home and moving to cloud applications. However, most employee home offices do not have strong security controls in place. Hackers knew this and ramped up phishing and malware attacks. Responding to security breaches costs thousands or even millions of dollars for organizations, especially for those following industry data protection regulations (PCI, HIPAA, SOX, etc.). As a result, your business should look at enrolling in a cyber insurance policy.
Contents
- What is cyber insurance?
- Potential cyber security incidents
- What does cyber insurance cover?
- What does cyber insurance not cover?
- Make sure the provider approves the claim
- Top 10 cyber insurance companies in the U.S.
What is cyber insurance?
Cyber insurance provides companies with financial protection against security breaches. The insurance settlement helps businesses cover time and effort for incident response.
Potential incidents
- Phishing attacks
- Ransomware attacks
- Business email compromise attacks
- Wire fraud
- Network outages
- Hardware failures
- Insider attacks
- Denial of service attacks
- Damaged, leaked, or stolen confidential data
- Compromised social media accounts
- Regulatory compliance violations
What does cyber insurance cover?
- Legal fees
- Settlement costs
- Consultant fees
- IT system repairs
- Regulatory fines
- Ransom payments
- Public relations costs
- Notification phone calls
- Credit monitoring
What does cyber insurance not cover?
- Errors in performance or failure to perform proper IT services
- Future lost profits
- Loss of value of stolen intellectual property
- Cost of improving technology systems
- Acts of war from a foreign power
Make sure the provider approves the claim by:
- Not getting complacent. Insurers will not pay out if users could have easily prevented the incident from happening.
- Using proper security practices in the office. Set up safeguards including antivirus, anti-malware, email filtering, web content filtering, intrusion detection, and backups. Our Security as a Service includes these safeguards.
- Review these tips for securing the home office
- Document the security practices your business puts into place, including your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
- Run regular network assessments of your IT environment
- Ensure third parties are providing their services securely
- Review the terms of the contract. Look at the incidents covered such as network outages, data breaches, and wire fraud. The contract may not cover home office network outages. Also, make sure you get a long enough timeline for an incident response before signing the contract.
Here are the top 10 cyber insurance companies in the U.S., according to Insurance Business Magazine:
For more information about cyber insurance plans, please contact SwiftTech Solutions at 877-794-3811 or email info@swifttechsolutions.com.