Who needs cyber insurance?

If your business uses technology, then you need cyber insurance. You’re vulnerable to an attack or a member of staff making a digital error no matter your size or scale. Even if you’re freelance.

Meantime, GDPR and an active regulator make it more essential than ever to be prepared for a data breach.

So, you need the protection of cyber insurance if you:

Use computers and email
Have a website
Store customer or employee information digitally
Take or make payments electronically
Store data in the cloud or use cloud-based services.

Cyber incidents come out of nowhere and carry no warning. Cyber insurance helps deal with them quickly and gets you back to business fast.

Read more about who needs cyber insurance.

What does cyber insurance cover?

Cyber insurance covers the time, money and expertise required to stop a cyber-attack, deal with the fallout, and get your business back to normal. It pays for IT forensics, data retrieval, ransom negotiations and security fixes. It also covers human error and financial crime, lost income, and the costs of a data breach.

Specifically, cyber insurance covers:

Security failures – when a hacker exploits a weakness in a business’s digital security.

Cyber-attacks – any kind of digital attack against a business.

Extortion – criminals using ransomware to hold systems or data to ransom. Find out more about insurance for ransomware.

Human error – mistakes leading to a data breach or system outage. This includes social engineering attacks, which rely on human error to succeed. Here’s some more information on social engineering insurance.

Data breaches – where personal or commercial information is accessed illegally. Deals with the costs of regulatory investigations, pays to inform anyone who’s data has been accessed and covers the costs of any resulting lawsuits.

Financial crime and fraud – when someone is tricked digitally into transferring money or goods to a criminal.

Reputational damage – PR and crisis management support.

There is also an optional add-on for your cyber insurance:

Cyber business interruption – pays for your loss of income and extra working costs if a cyber-attack stops you from trading.

Read more about what is cyber insurance?

How much cyber insurance do I need?

That depends, to some extent, on how much IT infrastructure you have. More hardware means more to repair or replace. More software means more data to restore.

You need to take into account the way you do business. Can you still trade without a website or access to other systems? Can you survive without email? Do you take payments online? Do you hold particularly sensitive customer data or images? What will be the consequences for both you and your customers if you’re hacked or held to ransom?

And don’t forget the legal costs. Informing regulators and customers you’ve been hacked costs as much as a solicitor charges you – and we all know how cheap they are.

Whatever conclusion you come to, you can guarantee a cyber-attack will cost you money. And because exactly how much money is very difficult to quantify (because every attack is different), you’re well advised to go for as much as you can possibly afford.

There’s good news if 80% of your staff successfully complete their free online Cyber Academy training. Your excess comes down by £2,500 and if it’s no more than that to start with, it disappears completely.

How much does cyber insurance cost?

The cost of your cyber insurance will depend on a few different things:

The nature of your business. For example, a marketing agency stores and sends a lot of customer data. So their risk would be a lot higher than a smaller, local business which has a lower dependency on data.
The size of your business. Larger businesses will be riskier to insure, so will expect to pay more for their insurance.
How much data you store. The more you store, the bigger a target you are for cybercriminals. So the more expensive your insurance will be.

These are just an example of the many things that will affect the cost of cyber insurance.

Even businesses that are on the less risky side would benefit from cyber insurance. It protects you from the disastrous consequences that pop up after a cyber-attack.

Not convinced? Find out the average cost of a data breach for a small business.

Does cyber insurance cover GDPR?

If you’re hit by a GDPR-related data breach, cyber insurance can help you shoulder a lot of the burden that you’re going to experience.

First things first, cyber insurance wouldn’t pay any GDPR fines you might receive.

It also wouldn’t cover you if a client sued you for losing or sharing their data improperly. This can sometimes be covered by professional indemnity insurance. But it’s always worth checking your policy wording to make sure.

The good news is that cyber insurance does cover a lot of the other things you’ll face, like:

Hiring IT experts to help contain the breach, fix your systems, and try to retrieve any stolen data
Paying for PR assistance to help you protect your reputation
Sets up a call centre to contact people affected by the breach
Covers any compensation and legal fees that you might owe
Reports the breach to the ICO, as required by law, and gives you legal advice during the whole process
Compensates you for business interruption, as long as it isn’t caused by employee error or a cyber-attack on a supplier.

Read more about GDPR and cyber insurance.

Does cyber insurance benefit from being Cyber Essentials accredited?

Yes. If your business is Cyber Essentials accredited, you’ll get a discount on your premium.

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme. It’s designed to help businesses defend themselves against cyber-attacks.

It’s also great for your reputation, as it shows other businesses and the public that you’re committed to cyber security.

There are two levels of accreditation. Don’t worry, you’ll receive a discount on your cyber insurance whether you meet the standard or Plus accreditation.

It’s a great way for small businesses to protect themselves against cybercrime. And it can help you set up an effective foundation for the future.

What else do I need?

Public liability insurance is for when you go out and about on business, or have visitors to your workplace. It’s for claims of physical damage to property and people. Useful if you’re clumsy.

Employers’ liability insurance covers your business if an employee sues it for damages. Claims are usually because they’ve suffered injuries and illnesses as a consequence of working for you. It’s a legal requirement for UK businesses with employees.

Office and property insurance covers the things in your workplace (furniture, plants, fixed IT equipment etc) and portable insurance covers gadgets and technical equipment away from the workplace (laptops, tablets, projectors etc). If you’re not sure it’s worth insuring, add it all up – it’s probably worth more than you think.

Business interruption insurance means you can still work when your workplace is out of action. Be it flood, fire or flea infestation, you’re covered for the costs of setting up elsewhere and for any lost revenue in that time.

Directors’ and officers’ insurance covers your company bosses. Anyone from regulators to shareholders to competitors can accuse you of not running a business with due care. Worse, directors are personally liable for their actions. The good thing is this insurance covers your defence costs and any compensation you have to pay. So you can put away your chequebook.

Why should I buy my insurance from you?

Glad you asked.

The simple answer is: we know what we’re doing. Professional insurance is all we do so we know what you need, even if you don’t.

We also know that buying insurance can be, well, a bit of a pain. So we make sure getting yours is quick and hassle-free.

We do all that while treating you like a human being, too. You won’t find a call centre here. Or a phone menu. And we’ve banned nonsense insurance jargon.

Anything else? Well, there’s the great stuff you get, such as an ‘I’m insured!’ badge for your website – perfect for the professional professional.

Also, we’ll give you money each time you recommend us.

If you’re after a second opinion, have a look at our customers’ feedback. They’re the ones you should really listen to.