09/12/19

Cyber insurance…have you read the small print?

Cyber Insurance is becoming the modern-day insurance that all businesses need due to the startlingly high level of cyber attacks that now occur … over 4 billion private records have been exposed during 2019 already.

We explain here what Cyber Insurance is and explore why asking your I.T. provider to check your policy to ensure you are covered for what you need is critical.

What is Cyber Insurance?

Cyber insurance (also referred to as Cyber Risk or Cyber Liability Insurance) is a form of insurance cover designed to protect your business from digital threats, such as data breaches or malicious cyber hacks on work computer systems.

Will your Cyber Insurance claim be valid?

If you leave your front door open and it results in a burglary, you know that neglecting to shut and lock it would probably invalidate a claim on your house insurance …

But do you know that if you are not reaching a certain level of security within your IT systems then you could be invalidating a claim on your cyber insurance?

Your I.T. systems are out there and there are numerous ways they can be attacked or damaged:

  • Data corruption
  • Data theft
  • Malicious cyber hacks
  • Ransomware

But Cyber Insurance usually requires a business to have taken certain steps to protect itself from attack in order to receive a payout from a claim.

Let us check the small print!

We want to make sure our clients – and all businesses with cyber insurance – are meeting the measures they agreed to when they signed on the dotted line.

If you do not clean your car windscreen and have an accident you may not be able to claim on your car insurance for any damages – insurers are well within their rights to declare a policy invalid if you have failed to keep up your end of the deal.

And it is no different when it comes to cyber insurance – if the small print says you should have two-factor authentication security in use on all systems and that is not the case the insurance could be invalid.

We work with businesses to provide solutions in protecting computer systems and safeguarding from attack and we are offering our help to businesses who are currently paying for cyber insurance, or thinking about signing up.

All businesses can send us the small print of insurance policies and we will read through and see what levels of security are required by the terms – and advise the business on what needs to be in place.

There are simple measures that should be taken against attack, things like well-selected passwords, installing internet security hardware and software and setting up rules within operating systems.

If your business has cyber insurance and you would like us to look over the terms and ensure you are reaching the level of security required in order for any claim to be valid, contact us on katy@pcnetsolutions.co.uk or call 01743 290588.