Given the rapid increase in data breaches – affecting not only Fortune 500 companies but smaller businesses as well – it’s worth checking whether your current insurance policy covers cyber losses.
That’s especially true now that almost every state requires companies to notify customers if their data has been compromised.
A growing number of insurers are now offering cyber-liability policies. These typically cover the costs of investigating a data breach and notifying customers, loss of business and reputation, and future credit monitoring.
A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that businesses with fewer than 10,000 customer records are more likely to be hacked than businesses with over 100,000 records, in part because they’re less likely to have robust defenses against hackers.
The study also said that in data breaches involving more than 500 customers, the average cost to a company was $5.9 million.