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As Cyber-Losses Mount, Insurance Needs Rise

Is your company adequately insured to handle a data breach or loss? Hardly a week goes by without some news of data thefts that put companies in jeopardy of catastrophic financial losses. Typical corporate liability insurance doesn’t cover the loss or theft of data. Even if your company policy covers some cyber liability issues, chances are it has significant gaps. When hackers break into an organization’s records, lawyers are not far behind.

A recent survey by a major insurance group found that while 25% of public companies expect to have a cyber breach in the coming year, only 35% are insured against cyber losses, even though these companies polled cite it as their number one concern. Often they are not insured because they don’t know that cyber liability insurance exists. Or if they do, they assume it’s too expensive.

If more executives knew that a U.S. Secret Service/Verizon Communications survey of small-to-medium-size businesses pegged the average cost of a data breach at over $5 million, chances are they would weigh cyber insurance costs differently.

Why risk a cyber-attack that steals your employees' social security numbers, your customers' contact information, and crashes your website so you can't take orders or collect the money you need to stay in business? If you’re an ecommerce startup, you’re among the highest at-risk business sectors. Medical practice data may be protected by HIPAA, but it’s the responsibility of a practitioner to protect that data.

The applications are endless.

The advisors at The Insurance Loft are experts at cyber insurance. We know data security almost as well as we know insurance. We meet with you to learn how you manage your data. If we see vulnerabilities, we’ll recommend ways to address them. For example: Maybe your passwords are weak to protect against a determined hacker. We work with you and/or your IT team to set up passwords and firewalls that protect all your online transactions among servers, apps, cloud services, databases, mobile devices and laptops.

The Insurance Loft advisors can help you create an IT security policy that identifies critical assets and defines policies for physical security, account management, plus backup and recovery. Just like having a good driving and credit record keeps car insurance premiums down, having good data security policies in effect can go a long way toward reducing the cost of cyber insurance.

Policy costs vary according to industry – the more online business you do, the greater the risk and the higher the premiums. Ecommerce companies are considered as high-risk as medical records companies that store valuable personal information like birth dates, social security numbers, and medical treatment histories. Because we know the cyber insurance market, The Insurance Loft will place your coverage with an underwriter that understands the complexities of today’s data handling environment.

The cyber insurance experts at The Insurance Loft are ready to work with you on a plan to protect your valuable data assets and cover your losses if a breach should occur. Call The Insurance Loft at 800-409-9790 or contact your advisor. We’re licensed in 34 states and you can request a quote online.


by Brian Cook
Founder + Managing Partner