What is Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability insurance—which biBERK sells conveniently as an add-on to a general liability, professional liability, or business owners policy (BOP)—protects your business from the financial repercussions of a cyberattack if someone steals sensitive information and commits fraud, or there is reason to believe that they might.
The risk of a system hack or data security breach is high for small businesses and getting higher all the time. The cost of helping customers recover if thieves obtain their sensitive information is also going up. In fact, the combination of the business and financial ramifications of a cyberattack is enough to put many small companies out of business. Fortunately, cyber liability insurance provides protection.
What’s Included in Cyber Insurance Coverage?
Cyber insurance coverage can pay (up to its limit) for incident response expenses when a covered incident occurs. This includes:
- Informational materials
- Helpline
- Credit report monitoring
- Identity restoration assistance and case management
It may also pay for lawsuits brought against you for credit card fraud, data security breaches, and system hacks.
When added to a small business insurance policy, cyber insurance coverage can provide additional services to affected individuals. Our licensed insurance experts can provide more information on those services.
First-Party and Third-Party Response Expenses: What Does Cyber Liability Insurance Cover?
It’s important to ask, "What does cyber liability insurance cover?" before an incident occurs. When cyber liability coverage is added to a biBERK general liability policy or BOP, first-party expenses (those incurred by the business) can be covered. When it is on a general liability policy, BOP, or professional liability policy, third-party expenses (those incurred by others) can be covered.
First-party response expenses vary based on the type of policy to which we add cyber liability coverage but may include things like:
- Forensic IT review
- Legal review
- Notification of affected individuals
- Services for affected individuals
- Public relations services
Third-party response expenses are defense and liability costs.
If your business handles or stores sensitive information like personal contact information, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or medical records, you may need cyber insurance coverage. And each provider’s cyber insurance definition may vary somewhat, so it’s crucial that you’re clear on what is and is not covered.
What Does Cyber Insurance Coverage Cost?
Cyber insurance coverage is surprisingly affordable, given how high the risk of a cyberattack is and how high the cost of recovery can be. At biBERK, cyber insurance coverage costs, on average, $85-$200 per year for base coverage that includes $50,000 for response expenses and $50,000 of defense liability.
In addition to very competitive rates, our cyber insurance coverage comes with low down payments. Plus, you can report claims online, which means no more waiting days or weeks for a claim to go through.
Cyber Liability Claims on the Rise
As cybercriminals continue to develop more sophisticated attacks and have greater success in illegally obtaining sensitive data, there’s every reason to believe that the number of cyber liability claims will continue to rise. Simply hoping that your business doesn’t become the target of a cyberattack isn’t a good strategy. You need to do all you can to protect your systems and data and then have financial protection from cyber liability insurance in case a cybercriminal gets past your defenses.
With those two strategies implemented, you’ll sleep better at night knowing that whatever happens, you’ve done all you can for your customers, and also that biBERK has your back if an incident occurs. Berkshire Hathaway, our parent company, started decades ago as a small business, so a commitment to protecting small businesses with cyber liability insurance and other policies at excellent rates comes naturally to us.