Pro Tips

Do I Need Cyber Insurance?

For many people, they hear Cyber Insurance and think… “oh that must be for some sort of cyber-attack.”

For many business owners, they think that a cyber-attack won’t happen to them because they don’t have a storefront business where they are processing credit cards and collecting customer information.

The reality is that if you are a business owner, all it takes is two pieces of personally identifiable information for your business to face a cyber breach. Let me give you an example.

Alex is a self-employed contractor. His work is general carpentry such as, framing, finish work, decks/porches and installation of windows and doors. Though he is often hired by a general contractor he does still work directly with clients of his own. In order to generate an estimate, he needs to collect a name and address of his client. Two pieces of personally identifiable information.

While parked at the gas station, Alex forgot to lock up his truck before he went inside. His binder with all his estimates was sitting on his console. In that binder was also his business checkbook and two deposit checks from clients. A person spotted the business lettering on the side of his truck, peaked inside and spotted the binder. They checked the door handle and started to rummage through all of Alex’s stuff. The thief then took off with Alex’s binder that had his estimates and business checkbook in it.

Alex realizes what has happened when he returns to his truck. His immediate thought is to call his bank and void all checks in his checkbook. Alex doesn’t realize how important the estimates are as well. Two months following his theft claim, Alex hears that two of his clients have been hit with identity theft when their checking account was falsely used. Though he thinks this is quite the coincidence, he doesn’t think anything of it until a third client is hit by identity theft and two of his own business checks bounced at the bank.

Putting it all together, Alex calls up his insurance agent and explains what has occurred. He is quite confident that the binder that was stolen not only had his checkbook in it but also contained estimates he had created for clients and three of them have been hit with identity theft. Alex then hears some of the worst news he could hear. “Alex, I am really sorry to hear that this has happened to you, but I am even more sorry to hear that this has happened to your clients. Unfortunately, you do not carry Cyber Insurance. I offered this to you at renewal and I have a signed statement here from you, declining Cyber Coverage.”

Luckily for Alex, his clients have great financial institutions that have built in protection for this. Alex had to learn a very tough lesson here and you bet he purchased Cyber Insurance that day.

Commercial Insurance can be so confusing, and we know you feel like we are constantly throwing on coverages that you don’t need but we are doing our bests to protect you. We want to make things simple for you and stress free so when you end up in a situation like Alex, you can sleep a little easier at night knowing you have the right insurance to protect you and your business.

For more information on making your insurance simpler give us a shout!