Cyber liability is quickly becoming a major concern for New York businesses looking to protect their clients’ information. Hackers are targeting NY small businesses because their computer defenses are often easier to crack than Fortune 500 companies.
The Murray Group‘s NY business insurance team has worked very hard to find the most competitive of New York insurance carriers with an expertise in cyber liability.
Let us reiterate. It’s not just the giant corporations being targeted by computer hackers. NY small businesses must protect themselves as well. This includes doctors’ offices, IT consultants, retail shops, financial advisors, attorneys, and more.
Cyber Liability Insurance
For any NY business that communicates and transacts business over the internet and/or holds personal data on clients, cyber liability is crucial to sustainability. Even if you don’t transact business online and just keep credit card numbers or personal information of clients on a server or computer hard drive connected to the Internet, you could be at risk.
An aggressive attack from a cyber criminal can shut down operations for minutes, hours, or even days and potentially expose proprietary or private client information.
When your business is internet based, your biggest liability concern is NOT slip and fall accidents. It’s network attacks and the loss of digital assets.
Most network & cyber liability insurance policies include a number of coverages providing insurance against both first and third party loss.
(disclaimer: Please remember that coverage can vary drastically from carrier to carrier even if the policy is similarly named. Please contact a Murray Group representative by calling (518) 456-6688 or click here to email about the unique risks effecting your NY business before purchasing a policy of this nature.)
First Party Coverage addresses the loss sustained on a business’ own network. This includes but is not limited to:
- Cyber extortion
- Cost associated with notifying impacted customers
- Business interruption from a non-physical loss
- Loss of digital assets
Third Party Coverage provides coverage for businesses that are responsible for a clients’ online security. Without third party coverage, a business is exposed to losses related to:
- Breach of contract
- Negligent protection of data
- Network security breaches
- Transmission of software viruses
What Can Happen With or Without Cyber Liability?
A teen with a little bit of hacking experience can launch a denial of service attack against your business because you wouldn’t give him an internship.
An employee can improperly dispose of a file containing clients names and social security numbers.
Another employee can accidentally email a file with clients names and social security numbers to unauthorized individuals.
Hackers can sneak into your database and steal stored credit card information.
We could probably come up with 100 more of these example of cyber liability, but you get the point. No matter what super anti-virus mega firewall software package you are running, the Internet opens you up to serious cyber liability risks.
NY Business Insurance Action Point
Regardless of how careful you are with client files or proprietary information, there is always the risk of a cyber liability claim. But don’t despair. Insurance carriers have addressed this exposure with network and cyber liability insurance. Be proactive and look into this coverage today.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposely only. There is no legal advice being suggested. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions taken or not taken by the readers based upon such information.
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