In a perfect world, business owners would never have to worry about falling victim to cybercriminals. Company data and critical systems would be immune to cyberattacks and breaches. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world and keeping your business safe demands awareness (by your people), vigilance (in creating and following processes) and advanced security tools (technology) to stay ahead of bad actors.
And what about your clients and vendors? Are you confident that they have the proper measures in place to keep your data safe? Even with the right people, process and technology, it’s a good idea to further protect your business with cyber liability insurance.
What is Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability insurance is a type of insurance – separate from general business liability insurance – that helps protect your business in the event of a cyber incident. With the right clauses, such as social engineering and invoice manipulation, cyber insurance can cover the costs of legal fees, monetary losses and reputation management and remediation.
“Cyber insurance is more important for businesses, particularly small businesses than it has ever been before.” – Burnette Insurance Agency
Why is Cyber Liability Insurance Important?
Cyber liability insurance is important because the consequences are REAL. Businesses are losing thousands of dollars every single day due to cyberattacks. A lot of small businesses mistakenly believe that they’re not big enough to be a target or they don’t have anything that criminals would want. This could not be further from the truth.
Small businesses are actually more of a target than middle-sized businesses because they usually don’t have the resources to support a full-time IT staff.
Here is a real-life example:
A small Atlanta business was recently caught in an email scam that almost cost them $105,000. A member of the company’s finance team received a very compelling email that appeared to come from the vice president asking for a $30,000 check to be overnighted to a vendor. This was not an unusual request. The finance team member cut the check and dropped it at the post office.
A couple of weeks later, another email was sent from what appeared to be the vice president, this time asking for more than $75,000 to be overnighted to the same vendor. After the employee dropped the check, she learned that the vice president never requested funds to be sent. The company was able to stop the $75,000 payment, but they were unable to recover the $30,000. This might not sound like a lot to a large enterprise, but for a small business, this is a large sum of money down the drain.
Had this company been protected with the right cyber liability insurance, their financial loss might have been covered.
Before you purchase cyber insurance, make sure you check out these 7 mistakes to avoid. If you would like more information or need help finding a reputable agency that specializes in cyber insurance, give our office a call at 678-257-3985.