Why Buy Cyberliability Insurance???

Why Buy Cyberliability Insurance???

By Steve Tague, President

Recently, it has become apparent that insurance consumers; namely you and me, are not only concerned about the cost of buying insurance, but paying more attention to what our insurance policies cover. At long last, this is a very good thing.

Major storm activity, paying claims “out of pocket” because insurance offered or suggested at the time was too expensive, purchasing lower coverage amounts and just not seeing why we should purchase certain types of coverage, have proven to cause expensive consequences on the part of the insured public.

One of the coverages that many business owners see as unnecessary is cyberliability. Cyberliability is insurance that is purchased to protect against cyber attack, which is any unauthorized access to our computer systems and or our databases.

Whether you, as a business owner, run a Mom and Pop bakery or a major Fortune 500 corporation, lists of a business’ customers; loaded with phone numbers, Social Security and Tax Identification numbers, addresses and who knows what other personal information may be  included in your database.

What would you do if your customer database or, for that matter, your paper lists of customers were breached? Well, you would first have to explain that this did occur to your valued customers, either by personal contact or a costly mailing. You would then have to run the risk of suffering a myriad of lawsuits from your angry customers. Finally, you would have to mount a major Public Relations Campaign to assure your current customers and any other future customers that your business and frankly, you can be trusted to keep their private information exactly that… Private. All of this will cost you a great deal of money, because these kinds of claims are not covered on your traditional business insurance policies.

If you don’t believe how this can be a problem, just ask the Taxation Department of the State of South Carolina whose tax database was breached and the “hackers” obtained access to 3.6 million tax returns with millions of Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers. Or how about asking The New York Times and Wall Street Journal whose databases were breached by a Chinese entity and access to all of the employee computer passwords and sensitive e-mails were obtained by the “hackers”

No matter how large or small your business is, you might consider discussing the purchase of cyber- liability coverage with us. It may save a lot of money and heartache for your business in the long run. Let’s talk about it!