What to consider when investing in cyber insurance

As a business, you are probably aware of the term, cyber insurance. With the cybercrime rates rising consistently, cyber insurance is increasingly becoming a necessity for survival. Here are a few things to consider before you sign up with a cyber insurance service provider.

Risk analysis

First, perform an internal risk analysis. Research to understand what kind of cybercrimes are most rampant in your industry and ensure your insurance policy covers those for sure. Like we discussed before, the most basic of cyber insurance covers data breach and associated costs, but you definitely want more than just that.

What is the scope of your policy

Be clear about the scope of your policy before you sign the dotted line. Remember that cyber insurance functions on the same principles and policies as like any other insurance, which means there will be deductibles, waiting periods and exclusions. Be sure to ask your insurance service provider about them. You don’t want to find out you weren’t covered by insurance until after the attack, at the time of claim. Here are a few things to ask your insurance company in this regard.

1. Does the policy cover you if a breach happens via your sub-contractor or vendor and makes you liable to your clients? If your cyber insurance doesn’t cover those, then make sure your vendors and sub-contractors have cyber insurance to cover you or sign some kind of an indemnity contract with them so you are covered in the event of such incidents.
2. In case of an action by your employee causing the breach, such as clicking on a fraudulent link or sharing data accidentally to a dubious email ID, will you still be covered?
3. Ask your insurance provider to clearly spell out any deductibles, exclusions and window periods that may exist
4. Check with your insurance provider on what would be your liabilities as the insured. For example, there may be rules regarding anti-virus measures, data safety and security measures, IT training, timely data backups and IT audits, etc., that you may have to follow in order to be eligible to be covered under the insurance in the event of a breach

Before you sign up, do your research thoroughly, get proposals from multiple insurance service providers and opt for a policy that covers your needs the most and the best. Sometimes, service providers may be willing to make additions or modifications to an existing policy to meet your exact requirements, which may work best for you.