Winnipeg Insurance Brokers Ltd. Unit 106-2565 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3J 0P4
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In 2024, cyber threats are more prevalent and sophisticated than ever, making cyber liability insurance an essential safeguard for businesses of all kinds and sizes.
Most businesses rely on computer systems and data to operate, and as a result viruses, hackers, and other digital attacks can happen to more businesses at any time, putting them at risk of losing critical information belonging to them and their customers. Therefore, understanding who needs cyber liability insurance and why it’s vital can help protect your business from devastating financial and reputational loss.
Cyber Liability Insurance protects businesses by covering the associated costs of recovering lost data or restoring computer systems after a data breach. It includes coverage for five elements of online security: network security, privacy, business interruption, media liability, and errors and omissions.
Without cyber liability insurance, your business risks incurring substantial costs related to dealing with a data breach. These costs can include paying damages and recovering digital assets such as intellectual property, employee records, customer data (e.g., credit card information), financial statements, media files, etc.
It’s important to know that there are two types of Cyber Liability Insurance: first-party and third-party. As a business, you’ll want both.
Recent high-profile cyber-attacks have underscored the importance of cyber liability insurance. For instance, the 2024 data breach against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, compromised the user data of millions of Ticketmaster users, leading to financial damage, and further reputational damage. Such incidents highlight the critical need for businesses to invest in cyber liability insurance to safeguard against potential breaches and cyber-attacks.
Any business can benefit from cyber liability insurance, but every organization that relies on digital systems, uses data for daily operations or stores customer data should already have it. This includes everything from large organizations to sole proprietors. No business is too big or too small to need or be exempt from needing insurance against cyber threats.
Your business cyber liability insurance if you:
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but even so, it’s easy to see that most modern businesses need at least a moderate level of cyber liability insurance.
It is hard to think of a business that doesn’t need cyber protection because every business that relies on computer systems or client data benefits from this coverage. Comprehensive coverage is recommended because cyber-attacks can occur unexpectedly and significantly impact a business’s operations and finances.
The threat of viruses and cyber-attacks is increasing, and cybercriminals continuously improve their tactics. So, every business is vulnerable to an attack, even from internal sources like a disgruntled employee.
A cyber liability insurance policy helps pay for the associated costs of repairing your systems or recovering your lost data. These costs can be high and drastically decrease a business’s bottom line (The average data breach costs over $85,000!). It’s always best to transfer those costs to an insurance company.
Since every company has different coverage needs there’s no baseline for Cyber Liability Insurance.
As is always true with insurance, those with higher levels of risk will need more coverage, while those with less measured risk can handle less.
It’s tricky to figure out exactly how much coverage you need. The best thing to do is reach out to an Insurance Broker (like us!) to get a custom quote.
But, if you’d like a ballpark idea, it can be a good idea to think about how much you imagine a data breach would cost your company—in other words, to calculate the value of your digital assets. As a rule of thumb, that’s the minimum amount of total coverage you’ll want to have.
To assess the range of coverage your company may need, you’ll want to take things like digital assets, hardware, software, business interruption, and associated fees into account.
Most companies have more digital assets than they think they do. You want to account for things like intellectual property, customer information, and less-obvious assets like the information stored by your POS system. And don’t forget to consider all the devices, systems, and channels you use to store data while you calculate.
Tally up the cost of replacing compromised hardware (like computers and tablets) as well as software (like your client management system).
Would your business have to close its doors temporarily if you experienced a data breach? If so, for how long? Think about the cost of a temporary closure, and factor that into your equation.
Finally, think about costs for legal fees and damages in the event your business is taken to court or sued over customer information being lost. Consider if you could handle the public relations (PR) side of a breach like this in-house or if you’d need to hire support.
All these numbers add up fast, and there are details of cyber liability that are easily overlooked.
We recommend you speak with an Insurance Consultant to get the most accurate information possible!
Cyber Liability Insurance costs vary much like the digital assets of different businesses. As a result, premiums start as low as $100 per month and go up to $10,000 and beyond (for companies with the highest levels of risk) per month.
The best way to find out what your specific company needs and costs are is to request a detailed quote. We’ll work with your IT department (or whoever is in charge of tech and security) to get all of the information we need, then give you exactly the details you need.
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We are committed to the communities where we live and work, and we demonstrate our commitment by taking part in sponsorship and volunteer programs.
We love it here, too.
We are committed to the communities where we live and work, and we demonstrate our commitment by taking part in sponsorship and volunteer programs.
Winnipeg Insurance Brokers Ltd. Unit 106-2565 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3J 0P4
Winnipeg Insurance Brokers Ltd. serves our clients and operates on Treaty One land; homeland of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Ojibway, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Red River Metis. Our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, in Treaty Three territory. We respect the treaties, the land, and the water that sustain us.