3 Questions To Ask About Cyber Insurance

Around 31% of businesses experience a cyber attack each week, so it isn’t surprising that business owners are becoming concerned about cyber risks. Data breaches and cyber attacks can cause significant financial losses, reputational damage and a breakdown in trust between your business and clients.

Cyber insurance is growing in popularity and, just like other types of insurance, cyber insurance can help businesses to mitigate risk. It provides a safety net for businesses that may be particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks, or have sensitive data saved within their networks which, if breached, could cause significant damage. But, before you jump feet-first into a cyber insurance policy, let’s take a look at some questions to ask about your cyber insurance.

What Type Of Incidents Are Covered?

As with any insurance, your first step is to find out what exactly is covered with your insurance policy. If you’re looking for a particular type of cover, then you’re best to ensure that your policy is right for your business. Most cyber insurance policies will cover first and third-party damages, however, it’s always recommended that you review the different policies so that you can ensure your insurance policy provides you with the right cover for your business needs.

As well as this, you also want to know of any incidents which may be excluded from cover. Some insurance companies will exclude certain incidents from their policy cover, especially if they’re deemed as risky. For example, if a data breach occurs as a result of use through an unencrypted smartphone or a BYOD, then this may not be covered.

Will It Be Valid Alongside Other Services?

If your business handles large amounts of sensitive data, or works primarily online, then you may already have steps in place to protect your data, such as cyber security services. It’s important to check with the providers you are looking to get insurance cover from as to whether this could cancel out any insurance claims you may make in the future, or if it’s fine to have the two services running alongside one another. Often, as cyber security services don’t provide insurance coverage, the two services do compliment one another.

Is Instant Response Included?

If the worst does happen and you experience a cyber attack or data breach, then it’s good to ask whether instant response services are provided as part of your cyber insurance. It’s no good experiencing a major breach, to only find out that you don’t receive any initial help or support upon discovery. You should also look to find out how long after reporting a cyber attack your insurance provider can be expected to respond. Just as you have a responsibility to report cyber attacks quickly upon discovery, your insurance provider has a duty to act quickly, too.

If you have cyber security services with a non-insurance provider, they will usually provide instant cyber incident response, but as mentioned previously, it’s best to check whether these two services can run alongside one another without affecting your policies.