Q: What is cyber insurance?

-Tech Newbie

A: Dear Newbie:

Cyber insurance offers protection against damages resulting from threats to your company’s computer systems and data, such as hacking, data breaches, network failures, and other events.

If your computer network is breached and your data is lost, stolen, or compromised, the cost to recover and restore this information can be extensive. Your company can also be held liable for damages to third parties, such as customers and vendors, whose data was stolen from your system.

Additionally, most states now have notification laws requiring you to inform all those affected by a breach, which can be super costly in itself, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of customers.

Having cyber insurance can reduce the potentially ruinous costs related to a breach in your system, including forensic investigations, data restoration, legal liability, and customer notification. 

If you collect and store third-party data, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and/or credit card numbers, you may want to consider a cyber insurance policy.

Contact a Family Business Lawyer™ who can assess the risk you face from cyber threats and help you find the level of cyber insurance coverage needed to best protect your company.