You Can’t Avoid Data Breaches – But You Can Ensure Your Organization will Survive.
With more and more businesses taking place online, the rate of cybercrime and data breach is on the rise. Many organizations are panicking, but organizational leaders can rest assured they’ll be ready to bounce back smoothly by investing in cyber insurance.
Why Cyber Insurance is the Fail-Safe Cybersecurity Strategy for Organizations in Every Industry
The internet is starting to play a much larger role in the way business leaders get work done. Whether it be social media management, increased email and web conferencing traffic, or online transactions, organizations see more and more of their data accessed, shared, and stored on the web.
With such an increase in online business, many professionals have been paying more attention to the ever-changing cyber crime landscape. With cybercrime on the rise and more opportunities for organizations to be the targets of data breaches, professional leaders are looking for the best ways to protect their business data and continuity.
Our team of IT specialists works with businesses day in and out – particularly on the issue of cybersecurity. Here’s the thing: we wish we could tell you that you could create a flawless cybersecurity defense that would keep you forever-shielded from increasing cyber threats. However, the fact of the matter is, data breaches happen. They happen to small-mid-sized businesses and large scale enterprises in all industries.
So, while you can and should be putting detailed and strategic cybersecurity measures in place, the reality is data breaches can still occur. This can be frightening for business leaders who are terrified financially and operationally demolished if their networks are breached. Things might sound pretty hopeless so far but bare with us. There are one fail-safe cybersecurity and business continuity strategy that any organization can rely on, which is an investment in cyber insurance.
What Is Cyber Insurance?
Put; cyber insurance is just like the vital insurance you invest in to protect your home, your car, or even your life. Cyber insurance policies are designed specifically to help organizations mitigate cyber threats by offsetting the recovery costs after a cyber incident or data breach has occurred.
Cyber insurance is sometimes also referred to as cyber risk insurance or cyber liability insurance coverage (CLIC). This is because cyber insurance is all about transferring risk. Investing in cyber insurance doesn’t mean that you’ll never get hit by a cyber threat. Still, it does mean that you’ll be in a much better position to recover operationally and financially.
Cyber insurance typically covers unexpected expenses related to a cyber incident or data breach. This could include costs that your organization itself is forced to take on to rectify the problem and any potential costs claimed by third-parties impacted by the data breach.
Here are some of the common expenses that the right cyber-insurance policy should cover:
- Investigation Costs – How did the data breach occur? What point of entry was exploited, and why did it happen? Cyber insurance providers should cover the costs of having a professional IT security team come in to investigate and crack the case.
- Business Losses – Did your organization lose a lot of money during the downtime associated with experiencing, investigating, and recovering from a data breach? The right cyber insurance provider will offer a policy to reimburse you for those losses.
- Privacy notification and monitoring – One of the worst and most expensive parts of a data breach can be the process of notifying all clients or third parties who may have been affected by the hack and monitoring their data to ensure no gaps in security remain. Cyber insurance will help cover the costs of notifying your clients and monitoring their data privacy post-breach.
- Lawsuits and extortion – If a data breach your organization experiences results in any legal expenses, the right cyber insurance policy will have stipulations to cover those costs. Even better? If your organization is being held hostage via a ransomware scam, cyber insurance policies often cover the costs of extortion as well.
What Providers Look for Before Providing Cyber Insurance Coverage
As you probably know, investing in any insurance is a two-way street. Later on, we’re going to give you some tips for choosing the right cyber insurance provider. Still, first, you need to know what different cyber insurance providers will be expecting from your organization before they agree to cover you.
Here’s a basic check-list of things that make your organization an ideal candidate for cyber insurance:
- Your organization has taken the time to examine the risks and vulnerabilities you face in terms of cybercrime.
- You have created a baseline cybersecurity strategy and are committed to following cybersecurity best practices.
- You have invested time in training your employees in cybersecurity awareness.
- At some point, you have partnered with a team of IT security specialists to ensure your mitigation and defense strategies are up-to-snuff.
- You are committed to a continual re-visiting of your cybersecurity strategy to account for evolving threats.
Strategies for Picking the Right Cyber Insurance Provider & Policy
Now that you know how to position yourself as an ideal candidate for coverage let’s talk about some strategies for picking the best cyber insurance policy on the market. As cyber insurance becomes more necessary, more and more providers are arriving on the scene. This can make it difficult to know which providers are trustworthy and reliable and who are just trying to profit from fear and uncertainty.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself as you search for a reliable cyber insurance provider:
- Can the provider’s policy be customized to meet the unique needs of your organization? The right cyber insurance policy will always be one that is tailored to fit your needs.
- What are the deductibles? Just like you would with your car, house, or health insurance, compare deductibles between providers.
- Does the coverage provide apply to your third-party vendors or service providers? Do your third-party vendors, and service providers have their own cyber insurance? If so, find out how this will affect your own coverage.
- What kind of cyber-attacks does the policy cover? Find out if they cover any cyberattacks or only targeted attacks against your organization in particular.
- Are internal attacks and data breaches covered? Be sure to ask if the cyber insurance policy will cover both malicious and non-malicious actions by internal team members that result in a breach.
- Does the insurance policy cover social engineering or network attacks? Be sure your potential provider is as clear as possible about the type and extent of attacks they cover.
- Does the insurance policy have specific time frames within which coverage applies? Data breach recovery can often last for an extended period of time, so make sure to understand how long your provider will offer coverage.
Why Cyber Insurance Makes Business Sense
The reality is, any business that stores, shares, or accesses any company data online are at risk of a data breach. Even worse? That risk is increasing by the day. As a team of IT security experts, we’re used to helping organizations prepare for the worst-case scenario. Still, the fact of the matter is that even with all the world’s preparation, the worst-case scenario can still occur.
The potential costs to an organization following a data breach can be astronomical. In fact, in many cases, the damage done by a cyber attack can be enough to demolish an organization both financially and operationally completely. That’s why, in addition to the cybersecurity planning and consultation we provide to our clients, we never hesitate to recommend cyber insurance as a fail-safe way to protect business continuity in the face of disaster. We’ve even gone so far as to start offering our own comprehensive cyber insurance coverage through our Armada solution.
Wondering how you can get started? It really is as simple as putting some time and effort into your organization’s cybersecurity planning and strategy. This should include creating a risk profile to help you understand your biggest vulnerabilities, talking to your employees about remaining aware and vigilant, and partnering with a team of IT professionals for strategic consultation and the development of best practices. Once you have a ‘big-picture’ cybersecurity plan in place, you’ll have a better idea of the cyber insurance coverage you need to remain afloat in the face of a data breach.
Call St. Louis’ Top Cybersecurity Team
Our team of cybersecurity experts can help your organization strategically prepare before investing in cyber insurance. Give us a call anytime at (314) 279-5620, drop us a line at info@alliancetechpartners.com, or visit our website at www.alliancetechpartners.com to chat with a live agent and book a cyber insurance consultation.
