Everyone carries insurance (auto, homeowners, health, etc) with the hope that we never have to use it. Its what helps us sleep a little better at night knowing that our assets are protected in the event that something bad, or God forbid a disaster happens. We protect our business by way of general liability insurance, workers comp, professional liability, and in some business Employment Practices Liability (protecting your company from allegations of wrongful termination, sexual harassment, etc.). Companies carry bonds and much, much more. The one thing a lot of us are not protecting our businesses from is the exposures that are present from the one thing we all use every day. Our computers and the internet.
That’s crazy, isn’t it? It is probably our biggest risk and exposure and not many businesses are protecting it.
InterWeb Insurance is an “Insuretech” agency, which means that most of the insurance transactions take place online. We, like all other businesses, house our client’s personal information. When I began to think about what would happen if someone from the outside were to hack into our system and access our client’s records and our proprietary software it got me thinking. What are we doing to protect our business? I went to work right away to check in with our programming and security team to see what we have in place to protect us. First off, I learned that we have a firewall installed. What is a firewall? I had the same question.
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.
- A firewall typically establishes a barrier between a trusted internal network and an untrusted external network, such as the Internet. (Source Wikipedia) Essentially, its an added layer of security against cyber attacks to your network.
- Second, we have a team that monitors our cybersecurity and works to implement added security to protect our devices. Lastly, we have cyber insurance. To me, this is probably the most essential component in our cybersecurity.
I feel this way because we can do everything in the world to protect ourselves and things still happen. I sleep better at night knowing that if a cyber-attack does happen and our client’s information is compromised or our reputation is damaged because of something beyond our control, we are protected. Our cyber insurance offers a team of experts that assist you in the event of a cyber breach. They perform diagnostics on your systems, track down the perpetrator and remedy whatever aftermath there is. Then the insurance kicks in and pays for the cost incurred. It makes us whole again like insurance is designed to do. You may be thinking
“Great! This is one more thing I need for my company, but how much is it going to cost me?”
Like all insurance, there are factors that are taken into account that calculate your rate. In the case of Cyber insurance, it is your exposure. This is found based upon your revenue and how many records you keep (client records, or information). In addition, how you collect payment is another determining factor. As I said before, we are an “Insuretech” agency. We develop our own online software, we host theses enrollment and insurance management platforms on our dedicated servers and a third party server. We have over 2,000 records. I am not going to disclose our revenue for obvious reasons, however, I will say that we have a $1,000,000 limit, which is a high limit but based upon our records and what the average recovery cost is per record, this is an appropriate limit for us. We pay $2,038 a year for our Cyber Insurance. Considering the amount of exposure we have and that over 50% of our income is derived from Ecommerce activity, this is a small price to pay for peace of mind. If you have far fewer records, exposure and a lower limit you could be looking at as low as $500 a year for your Cyber insurance.
After researching the cybersecurity in place for our firm I am confident that we are ready for whatever the cyber hackers want to throw at us. I can not express enough how important it is for all businesses to have the cyber talk with their executive team and come up with a plan that protects their business. I understand you’re busy running a company and you are probably not jumping at the chance to have one more thing being added to your list of todos. Also, putting in cybersecurity measures will not make you money but it most definitely will save you money if you are one affected by a cyber attack. Being in this industry and this particular field as long as I have, I have resources that I can share with you. There are reputable companies out there to manage your IT, find you the right Cyber coverage for your firm and mitigate your cyber risk by implementing cybersecurity within your networks. I feel its more important now than ever to have a cyber plan in place due to the recent dramatic increase in employees working remotely.
Watch this quick webinar to learn more about the COVID-19 effects on business from an IT perspective
Call Interweb Insurance today and ask for Michelle. I can help you sleep a little bit better at night knowing that your business is protected from cyber threats. Watch the webinar below to get a better understanding of how important Cyber Security during current times can be.
