What's cyber-insurance?

Following 2017 massive hacking, malware and data breaches from big companies such as Equifax, Yahoo and Uber, 2018 started with big cybersecurity scandals such as Facebook and Cambridge Analytics. Today, companies are starting to implement not only privacy policies but also strengthen their cybersecurity strategies, and cyberinsurance is a big trend for 2018.  

However, according to Symantec in the Small Business Trends Report, 43% of cyberattacks affect small business which generally doesn't have the right infrastructure to defend and become easy targets. As the threat grows, more opportunities to fight back appear that’s the case of cyber-insurance.

The concept is easy, just like car insurance help drivers recover costs associated with a car accident, a cyber-insurance can help businesses restore their assets after a hacking incident as fast and efficient as possible. Here are three things you need to know about the matter:

When does become handy?

 There are three types of hacking scenarios where having a cyber-insurance can be very helpful:

• Ransomware Attacks, where hackers take over the system and demand a ransom to give control back, otherwise they will destroy your data or leak it to the public.
• Identity Theft, a hacker that holds private information such as social security numbers and uses it for non-legal purposes. 
• Credit Card Skimming, data breaches commonly include credit card skimming to rack up fraudulent charges and it might take weeks before the activity is discovered.

In all of these scenarios, cyber insurance policies can help mitigate the cost of recovering the data, and is one of the core components of a cybersecurity strategy.  

Is security part of cyber insurance? 

The Cisco 2018 Cybersecurity Report highlights some of the most common type of attacks as well as some of the security technology designed to prevent these. Cyber-insurance does not provide an infrastructure to prevent the attack from happening, your business will need to have in place a full security strategy where insurance is part of the contingency plans, not the prevention.

Although cyber-insurance might not cover everything associated with the hacking it can often provide your business a team of experts whose knowledge can be extremely valuable to restore your data and systems.

Get ready to protect your business from cyber-attacks and talk to an expert Today!