5 Questions about Cyber Insurance for Your Business
If you store customer information and confidential business data, you can be at risk for a cyberattack. Cybercrime isn’t just a threat to big businesses. With cyber insurance, your small or medium-sized business is protected in case of a breach.
Here are 5 questions answered about cyber insurance for small and medium-sized businesses.
1. What is cyber insurance and why is it important for my business?
Cyber insurance is specialized insurance that helps protect businesses after an attack by cybercriminals.
Does your business use e-commerce? Do you store client data electronically? If you use computers for any purpose in your business, you could be at risk for a cyberattack or data breach. These attacks can have both financial and reputational consequences for your business.
Did you know? The average total cost of a data breach to Canadian organizations in 2022 is an estimated $7.3 million.
2. What does cyber insurance cover?
Cyber liability coverages include:
- Network security
- Privacy breach liability
- Privacy breach expense
- Business interruption
- Cyber extortion and ransomware
- Among others
3. Doesn’t my business insurance already include cyber liability?
Cyber breaches are typically not covered by general liability insurance for your business.
4. What kind of cyberattacks could my business be exposed to?
- Phishing attack: A phishing attacks happens when a cybercriminal pretends to be a trusted contact, and entices a user to click a malicious link, download a malicious file, or give them access to sensitive information.
- Malware attack: Malware usually comes from malicious website downloads, spam emails or from connecting to other infected machines or devices.
- Ransomware attack: Ransomware involves encrypting a business’s data so that it cannot be used or accessed. Cybercriminals then force the business to pay a ransom to unlock the data.
- Weak passwords: Easily guessed passwords or using the same passwords for multiple accounts can cause a company’s business data to be compromised.
- Internal threats: Employees, through carelessness or revenge, can put your company’s critical data is harm’s way.
5. What are some safe cyber practices for my business?
Your need to understand cybersecurity risks that your small or medium-sized business can face.
- Back up your data.
- Encrypt sensitive and proprietary company information.
- Teach and train your staff about cybersecurity to help avoid attacks.
- Provide firewall security for your Internet connection.
- Securely configure all of your company’s devices.
- Use strong user authentication.
Remember to think twice before automatically clicking on links or opening attachments.
