Sometimes it seems like not a month goes by without some major hack that disrupted a large tech company or retailer. According to IndustryWeek, in 2018 alone there was a 350 percent increase in ransomware attacks, a 250 percent increase in business email compromise and a 70 percent increase in spear-phishing attacks in companies. If you operate a business in the 21st Century, you’re at risk for a hack. So it makes sense to consider cyber insurance. Below we’ll cover what cyber liability insurance is, how much it costs and where you can find it.
- The 5 Best Providers of Cyber Insurance
- What is Cyber Insurance?
- How Much Does Cyber Insurance Coverage Cost?
- What Cyber Insurance Coverage Should Small Businesses Look For?
- Finding Cyber Quotes Online
The 5 Best Providers of Cyber Insurance
Below we’ve listed some of the top places to find cyber insurance. To try to get quotes, we listed a sole proprietorship accounting firm with no employees and $35,000 in annual revenue.
- Zeguro: Specialization in only cyber security products
- Chubb: Customized cyber security packages
- Travelers: Differentiated CyberFirst products that work for a wide variety of business types
- AIG: Comprehensive coverage
- Nationwide: Identity recovery protection and credit monitoring
Zeguro – Specialization in only cyber security products
This company specializes in cyber safety services. It offers insurance, monitoring, compliance, and training to keep your systems secure. A nice perk is that you can get a free trial of this service.
Zeguro’s site allows you to get an insurance quote. We selected a $500,000 aggregate limit and $5,000 deductible. Once you get to the end of your questionnaire for your business, you get a screen telling you the company will email you a secure login to get your quote from the system.
We’re still waiting on this email after about one day. There is also a support email or 800 number to call.
Chubb – Customized cyber security packages
A major player in the business insurance world, Chubb also offers a wide variety of cyber liability insurance products. The company specializes in combining different cyber security products together for a package that helps different types and sizes of businesses. As such, the company wants you to contact them directly through an online contact form or find an agent to start the quote process.
Travelers – Differentiated CyberFirst products that work for a wide variety of business types
Travelers offers a wide variety of coverage options for small businesses all the way up to Fortune 500 companies. It offers broad cyber liability coverage and expense reimbursement. You can find the CyberFirst program geared specifically for technology companies or public entities. It also offers a CyberFirst Essentials package for small businesses. This company also works through agents.
AIG – Comprehensive coverage
If you’re looking for comprehensive coverage, you’ll want to consider AIG. Its CyberEdge product covers financial costs in the event of a data breach, as well as costs for issues like cyber extortion and data restoration, as a few examples. It also has the CyberEdge Plus that covers physical losses from a data breach, like business interruption. Plus, there’s CyberEdge PC, which offers excess coverage on property and casualty policies. To start the process, AIG wants you to submit an online contact form.
Nationwide – Identity recovery protection and credit monitoring
Nationwide offers several different types of cyber insurance coverage. It breaks down the services into three categories: data compromise protection, identity recovery protection, and CyberOne protection (which protects against and repairs damage caused by a computer attack or virus). The data compromise protection is notable in that it includes credit monitoring.
What is Cyber Insurance?
Cyber insurance can seem confusing at first because it tends to be listed in several different terms. You’ll also see it listed as cyber liability insurance, cyber security insurance, and data breach insurance. All of these protect you in the event that you’ve been digitally compromised. These policies can protect you from the legal fallout of cyber-attack or help with restorations after the fact. Policies also cover the direct costs of such a hack.
The Insurance Information Institute (III) lists several of the costs that tend to be covered by cyber liability coverage:
- Liability: The costs that affect customers and third parties after a cyber-attack
- System recovery: Replacing or repairing electronics after damage and breaches, plus losses from when a system is down
- Notification expenses: These relate to the costs of notifying customers, clients and others when you have had a data breach or similar event
- Class action lawsuits: When data and privacy are compromised, lawsuits can go after the company to recoup losses
- Regulatory fines: If the breach happened because you did not meet regulations, you could face fines
Cyber insurance can also cover additional issues related to hacks, like loss of data itself, business interruption, identity theft, cyber extortion and reputation recovery.
How Much Does Cyber insurance Coverage Cost?
Cyber security insurance is another one of those insurance types that can vary drastically based on a number of different conditions. According to Progressive Commercial, those factors can include:
- Coverage needs and limits: Like other insurance types, higher payout limits translate to higher premiums, and larger / riskier businesses will need higher limits
- Network security: You could reduce your costs by showing that you have a secure network
- The type of profession you work in: Some professions collect larger amounts of sensitive data, which can lead to higher potential losses
- Claims history: If you’ve filed a claim in the past, that can increase premiums
- Data access: Who accesses your data can affect risk, such as if third-party contractors regularly access your network; more people accessing your network can mean more of a risk that your data could be compromised
For example, cyber liability insurance can cost anywhere from $500 annually to $5,000 or higher. On the extreme end, large-scale businesses with a high degree of sensitive data may need $3 million in protection and could pay more than $25,000 annually.
What Cyber Insurance Coverage Should Small Businesses Look For?
Each cyber liability insurance policy can come broken down with different types of coverage. Some focus on liability. Others offer different types of protection related to data breaches, such as identity theft protection and credit monitoring after data has been compromised. That is why you will sometimes see it labeled as data breach insurance. Some companies offer risk management solutions that help prevent attacks in the first place. The policies may also cover physical damage caused by a cyber-attack, for instance, if a security system went down and a building was robbed.
Because these products are so diverse, it’s important to shop around to find the products that work for your business and own peace of mind. Below we’ll cover some of the top companies to look into for cyber security insurance.
Finding Cyber Insurance Quotes Online
In order to find quote comparisons online, we entered a sole proprietor accountant with no employees and $35,000 in annual revenue. CoverWallet was the most viable option for finding a cyber insurance quote. Through CoverWallet, we got the single quote below.
Frequently Asked Questions about Cyber Liability Insurance (or Cyber Security Insurance)
What does a cyber insurance policy cover?
Cyber insurance covers when your company has had a cyber-attack event, such as a data breach or a hack. These policies vary in what they can cover, but often they cover aspects like identity protection, financial loss, reputation management, notification costs, legal fees and many other costs related to a cyber-attack event.
What does cyber insurance cost?
Like all insurance types, prices could vary depending on business size and what types of insurance you can get. The quote we were able to retrieve from CoverWallet quoted us at $75 per month for a small accounting company through BCS. However, it’s challenging to get quotes online directly from companies because cyber security insurance is a specialized product that is sourced best directly from agents and reps.
Who offers cyber insurance?
You can find cyber insurance these days through almost any major business insurance carrier or agent. Because cyber-attacks are so common now, it’s a very popular product.
Why do I need cyber insurance?
Even if you do everything right, like update your anti-virus and encrypt your data, hackers are always finding ways around corporate security measures. Often, lawsuits can result when private information is compromised after a hack. It can also be expensive to recover data and clean up your reputation after a hack. Cyber liability insurance protects in these cases.
Final Thoughts
- Cyber insurance protects you from the legal and financial fall-out of a cyber-attack. For instance, if your business gets hacked and credit card numbers are leaked, cyber liability insurance products can help with legal fees, costs of notifying the public and some even cover identity theft protection. It can also help with repairing damaged electronics and even the costs of recovering the data that’s been compromised.
- Cyber insurance costs vary drastically, depending on the size of your business, the risks of your industry and how much coverage you want. For instance, a large e-commerce company that stores thousands of credit card numbers is going to need more coverage than a small accounting business with 10 clients. It’s important to comparison shop between different companies and cyber security insurance types.
- Some of the top companies that offer cyber insurance include Zeguro, Chubb, Travelers, AIG and Nationwide.
- CoverWallet is a good source for finding data breach insurance quotes. However, we only received one quote from the site.
