Last month we released our new cyber insurance report which is an in depth look into this topic, but we wanted to touch on what we’re specifically seeing so far in 2022 in today’s article because from what we’re seeing in from our clients and in the industry – cyber insurance requirements are on the rise.
If you’re new to cyber insurance or aren’t sure what’s covered under this sort of policy, for most insurance providers cyber insurance offers coverage for technology related disasters. This could include a cybersecurity event such as ransomware or a data breach but depending on your level of policy it might also include IT related downtime not related to cybersecurity such as internet outages. You may even see coverage for specific device issues, such as the loss of an office server that’s critical for day-to-day operations.
When it comes to the cybersecurity related coverage what many people don’t realize is it’s not only meant for covering your own losses, but also the potential loss incurred by your customers. If you have a data breach, your cyber insurance coverage will cover the cost of any litigation brought by your customers and it may also cover items such as on-going credit monitoring if their PII (personal identifying information) was exposed in the data breach your company suffered.
It can be easy to feel detached from a loss you haven’t suffered yet. To put some perspective to, it during the Anthem data breach in 2015 when involved 80 million patient records, their costs to notify their customers (which HIPAA regulations stipulate must be done by snail mail) exceeded $40 million in just postage. That’s not even taking into consideration all of the other costs associated with that breach.
They’re a major corporation, so again it may be difficult to imagine yourself in those shoes, but even for small companies the average costs are as high as $200,000 per breach. Also, if you’re hit with a ransom and think you can just pay it and get out intact, think again. Many times, even if you receive the de-encryption key from the hackers your data may still be lost.
It’s not surprising that insurance providers are looking at this and wondering how they can alleviate some of the risk they’re taking providing insurance to customers going forward. The requirements are increasing, even for us as a technology provider for businesses we’re seeing longer forms that we’re assisting our customers with when they go to acquire a new cyber insurance policy.
These longer forms are featuring more difficult questions as well. We have made cybersecurity a staple feature of our plans so our customers are in a good place for obtaining a cyber insurance policy, but the truth is if cybersecurity has been on the back burner for your business, you may have a difficult time in 2022 and beyond finding an insurer that’s willing to cover you.
As an idea of where to start before you go to obtain a cyber insurance policy, we’ve created this checklist of items you can begin to work on to put your business in a better position this year.
Click to grab the full size version.
Many of the items listed are easy for even someone who’s not very tech savvy to tackle, but if you’d really like to protect your business from hackers this year, we suggest teaming up with a tech provider like Valley Techlogic.
Cybersecurity is a core focus for our business, we will match your business with a cybersecurity framework that makes sense – for example CMMC for defense contractors, HIPAA for healthcare providers, NIST or CIS for small and medium sizes businesses of any industry – and use that framework to have a concrete game plan for making sure your networks and devices are impenetrable to bad actors. Learn more today with a quick consultation
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This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.
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