Cyber Liability Insurance California
If you use e-mail, have networked PCs, a Web site, or private customer data in your computer systems, you have a lot to lose. You may have firewalls, virus protection, anti-spam systems, and prudent procedures to protect passwords and prevent employees from downloading dangerous material. But these measures are not foolproof. When they fail cyber insurance kicks in.
The most obvious need is to pay for cleaning up after a worm or a hacker attack, cleaning and restoring infected files, etc. But also you may be unable to do business for several days. And you might be liable for allowing copyrighted material or private information about your clients to fall into the wrong hands.
Claims of misappropriation of data tend to be very significant, The cost of defending such claims can exceed $100,000.
TYPES OF COVERAGE
- Privacy and security liability. If you maintain private employee or customer data like credit card numbers, you are liable if the information slips out because of faults in your systems or theft by hackers or malicious employees. Privacy and security liability coverage also protects you from costly corporate claims from businesses like banks and credit card issuers, who can sue even if the losses don’t occur inside your shop.
- Crisis management covers costs for restoring lost or corrupted data, and getting your systems back up and running. Some carriers include public relations coverage to help defray the costs of consultants and advertising to rebuild your reputation after an incident.
- Business interruption, denial-of-service attack and lost income coverage kicks in if you lose revenue after an attack or when a service provider, such as a web host, is shut down by a cyber attack, has a glitch or goes out of business. It also helps defray costs of restoring valuable data and repairing systems.
- Cyber extortion. People threaten your computer systems or web site, then demand money or goods to call off the threat. Extortionists increasingly target small businesses because of their perceived inability to fight back. Cyber extortion policies often cover the “settlement” and the cost of hiring a security firm to track down the perpetrators.
- Media or web content liability coverage protects you from charges of libel, slander, copyright and trademark infringement for content, photos, and slogans you use on your web site, and those posted on bulletin boards and chat rooms by visitors. It also covers liabilities associated with banner ads on your site for other businesses.