What is cyber insurance?

Cyber insurance protects your business against financial losses as a result of IT system and network issues. Cyber cover can include data breaches and hacks, as well as privacy investigations or lawsuits following an attack. Always check to ensure your policy covers you for your businesses needs.

What does cyber insurance cover?

There are different levels of cyber insurance cover, the most likely you will need for you business are:

Security and Privacy Breach Insurance

If your business is hacked or has a security and privacy breach, third-party insurance will cover investigation, defence costs and any civil cases that are brought against your business.

Multi-Media Liability Insurance

Your business could accidentally distribute material which infringes copyright/trademark, plagiarises another’s work, slanders an individual/ business or personal cause injury. Multi-Media Liability could cover you against all these aspects.

Privacy Regulatory Defence Cover

By having privacy regulatory defence cover, you cover your business against regulatory fines and penalties and/or regulatory compensatory awards incurred in privacy regulatory proceedings/investigations brought by regulatory body such as the government, ICO or FCA.

Business Interruption

If your business has a first party business interruption agreement within your cover, your business will be covered against loss of earnings due to network down time.

Cyber insurance will not cover:

General IT ware and tare – if your wire breaks or a computer needs replacing it is unlikely that your cyber insurance policy will cover you.

Public Liability claims – unless someone is harmed by a cyber related incident (even then it’s worth checking with your insurer), a cyber policy will not cover other liabilities.

Does my business need cyber insurance?

If your business is reliant on any kind of computer network (the internet, internal servers) it would be advised to enquire about cyber security. It is not a legal requirement in the UK to have cyber insurance.

Is cyber insurance compulsory by law in the UK?

No, cyber insurance is not compulsory by law but this should be heavily considered by businesses before making the decision not to take out a cyber insurance policy.

Considerations to be made when choosing cyber liability insurance 

By evaluating your business cyber risks you will reduce them. Even if your company has a large dedicated IT team, they are is still at risk of data breaches and network issues. To reduce risks consider:

• Keep staff training up to date and regular – By training your staff regularly, you keep there knowledge up to date and reduce the risks of someone making an unknown mistake.
• Data encryption – Encrypting sensitive files or drives with personal or business data within means if this data gets into the hands of someone it was not intended, there is less risk of this data being accessed.
• Reduce portable device movement – If a portable device is required this should be kept on the individual at all times or kept at work (i.e. no quick trips to the pub on the way home and leaving a laptop in the ‘bag pile’). Always remember to have these devices PASSWORD PROTECTED.
• Keep informed of legal updates – By understanding changes to regulations such as GDPR and privacy laws, you ensure that your company policies do no become outdated. You can keep up to date by subscribing to the ICO newsletter.