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Cyber Insurance

What’s this all about?

Cyber insurance is used to protect businesses and individual users from Internet-based risks, and more generally from risks relating to information technology infrastructure and activities.

Do I need it?

Most businesses of any size rely on information technology to some level, and with the continued rise in the amount of information stored and transferred electronically there has been a large increase in potential exposures facing businesses. Regulations, such as the Data Protection Act also need to be considered, as a loss of sensitive personal information may be subject to fines and sanctions from the Information Commissioner.

In 2014 a UK Government survey estimated that 81% of large companies and 60% of small businesses suffered a cyber breach. With the average cost of a cyber breach being £600,000 to £1,500,000 for large businesses and £65,000 to £115,000 for small businesses.

While existing insurance policies such as commercial property, business interruption or professional indemnity insurance, may provide some elements of cover against cyber risks, it is unlikely to protect against most cyber exposures. Exposures are extensive, ranging from the content you put on your website to stored customer details. Awareness of the potential cyber exposures your business faces is essential to ensure you have adequate cover in place.

What does it cover?

Cyber insurance covers the losses relating to damage to, or loss of information from, IT systems and networks.

Generally cyber risks fall into first party and third party risks. First-party insurance covers your business’s own assets. This may include:

  • Loss or damage to digital assets such as data or software programmes
  • Business interruption from network downtime
  • Cyber exhortation where third parties threaten to damage or release data if money is not paid to them
  • Customer notification expenses when there is a legal or regulatory requirement to notify them of a security or privacy breach
  • Reputational damage arising from a breach of data that results in loss of intellectual property or customers
  • Theft of money or digital assets through theft of equipment or electronic theft

Third-party insurance covers the assets of others, typically your customers. This may include:

  • Security and privacy breaches, and the investigation, defence costs and civil damages associated with them
  • Multi-media liability, to cover investigation, defence costs and civil damages arising from defamation, breach of privacy or negligence in publication in electronic or print media
  • Loss of third party data, including payment of compensation to customers for denial of access, and failure of software or systems

How can we help?

The level of cover your business needs is based on your individual operations and can vary depending on your range of exposure. If you would like us to provide a quotation please complete one of the following:

We do everything we possibly can to check that we have got our facts straight, but it’s always possible that we could make a mistake (hopefully not or never would be better). Therefore we would like to make you aware that we accept no responsibility for information that may be factually incorrect or out of date, but we will do our best to make sure that all content is accurate. Our vision behind bringing the blog to the wider community is to keep our clients and prospective clients informed of their legal requirements, the different products on offer and how they may benefit your business and the new schemes we find which we think will benefit you.

We are Personal and Commercial Insurance Brokers based in Newquay, Cornwall covering the whole of the UK.