Cyber Liability: Not Just For the 'Big Boys'

Cyber Liability coverage goes by many different names in the marketplace, and each carrier does things a little bit differently. However, the realm of cyber liability is very broad, and your business may have more exposure than you think!

Cyber liability coverage is no longer only a necessity for multi-million dollar operations and tech companies. Even little ‘mom and pop shops’ have significant exposure to a Cyber Liability claim.

So what all is included in the scope of Cyber Liability? The following is a list of possible scenarios that would be covered by a typical Cyber Liability (CL) policy:

• If a hacker was able to steal the social security numbers or other personal information about your employees or customers, the CL policy would cover the expenses for notifying the government and victims of the breach, credit monitoring for the victims, costs to recover stolen identities, costs of any fines or penalties, and the extra costs for public relations.
• If a hacker was able to destroy company information/trade secrets/digital assets/etc., the CL policy would pay to recreate those items.
• The CL policy would pay any damages to third parties caused by a breach of security
• If a hacker was able to deny your online service to customers/vendors, the CL policy would pay the loss of business income, and the damages to your vendors if they weren’t able to fulfill orders.
• If a hacker was threatening to destroy/deny service if a ransom isn’t paid, the CL policy would pay the ransom.
• If a fraudulent funds transfer was made, the CL policy would cover the money lost.
• The CL policy would cover any suits brought against you for online infringement of domain name, copyrights, trade names, slogans, service marks, etc.
• The CL policy would cover any business interruption losses due to any of these situations, and it would also cover the costs to re-secure your website/server/etc. after a breach.

Simply having private information stored on your computer creates a Cyber Liability exposure. When you have a website, social media site, or online commerce abilities, your risk increases even more! Remember, it's always better to have too much coverage than not enough, when it comes to insurance.

Note from the Author (Nov. 14, 2014): After two years of work, we've entirely redesigned our website! Using SquareSpace, we were able to import this blog and we are continuing our blog there. To find the current version of this article and our new articles, click HERE.