Cyber Insurance: Basics and Benefits to Businesses

Insurance is an area that can be beneficial to both individuals and companies in many scenarios, and one that's perhaps not considered as often as it should be in the business world is the realm of cybersecurity. Even if you're engaged in all the proper measures to protect your company's data and internal processes, keeping cyber insurance in case something goes wrong is often a highly prudent approach for business owners to take.

At JCIT, we're proud to offer a huge range of IT support and related managed IT services, with cybersecurity serving as just one of several key areas we manage on behalf of clients. We regularly assist clients with themes like cyber insurance and whether they should consider it, even if they're working with our experts for quality security measures. In today's part one of this two-part series, we'll go over some basics on cyber insurance and why it pays to hold it for your business; in part two, we'll look at the risks you're taking if you don't have it.

Cyber Insurance Basics

Just like other forms of insurance protect people or entities against various accidents or events, cyber insurance can provide a crucial layer of protection should something go wrong. In the business world, this sort of insurance can help cover many different types of expenses and damage that might result from an online incident involving your company's data or systems.

Some of the features of cyber insurance may include:

• Breach coverage: This type of policy will ensure that you receive funds to handle expenses incurred because of a data breach.
• Privacy liability coverage: This feature is designed to protect against claims arising from the release of customer information or private records, whether the information is accidentally released or deliberately stolen.
• Cyber crime/terrorism: A specific type of policy that covers costs involved with recovering from an attack or crime that occurs on a company's network.
• Other features: Other features of cyber insurance may include costs related to Internet-based attacks, online scams, and more.

And just like other forms of insurance, you likely won't use cyber insurance often -- but it's better to be safe than sorry! Here are some other reasons why.

Pre-Threat Services

Quality cyber insurance programs also offer forms of analysis and services that can help your business avoid many kinds of cyber threats in the first place. These helpful programs are known as pre-threat services, and they're designed to identify whatever vulnerabilities may exist in your company's online security measures so that you can remedy them or take steps to prevent an incident from ever occurring.

Integration With Current IT Teams

Any good cyber insurance company will also have significant experience interfacing with IT teams and cyber security professionals, which can be a huge asset to your business. We regularly work with top cyber insurance firms, combining our team's knowledge of the business world with the special cyber insurance expertise these companies bring to the table.

For more on why cyber insurance is a program you must be considering for your business, or to learn about any of our IT support services, speak to the team at JCIT today.