The Expert Podcast

Terrence or cyber liability insurance this day and age. And if you do need it. How do you get it? How much does it cost What do you have to go through to get it…

Well we're going to take a look at it from a couple of different angles Obviously you see from our link risk coverage…

We provide services for both cyber prevention and also cyber insurance…

But the reality is the cyber insurance market. Has never been different. Than what it is now. Over the last year or two. There has been a lot of ups and downs with cyber insurance.

It's becoming obvious. That. You don't want to have it as just a standalone. Way to protect your business…

In addition to having cyber insurance you want to also have some cyber defense built into your organization. Things like. Two factor authentication, password changes. Making sure all your computers are patched properly with the right updates. And having some monitoring system.

To detect when there's intrusions. Most of these cyber attacks happen. Over the course of weeks or months where the hacker will, will break in through some unsecured device Sometimes something as simple as a, security camera. That's on your network. They get in through that They get into the rest of your network and they sit there for days weeks months monitoring all your traffic reading your emails downloading your files, getting all your information.

They do this before they actually make their attack. Because your server with your documents and. Critical files accounts payable receivables bank accounts. It's probably more secured than your security camera, but once they get all that information by monitoring it then they make their attack. If you can detect it…

Before they actually launched their attack. You can block the whole thing. In many cases, these hackers are…infiltrating thousands of companies and just sitting there watching to see which ones they're going to pounce on. And they may not pick ones that have detection. Or that are not as lucrative…

So there's many ways you can prevent it…

So before we get into some details, let's look at you know what some of the experts say you know here's one the reality of cyber insurance in 2023. If your organization decides to include cyber insurance, Must be fully integrated with a cybersecurity posture now. One of the things that the cyber insurance companies are doing. You know we work with companies like coalition and Chubb, many other companies box limit…

They are. also include a cyber defense component to most policies Make sure you check your policy to make sure it does. but they will include a monitoring before when you're doing underwriting to sign up for these policies They're going to ask you some questions. Do you have…two factor authentication? Do you have the most recent version of windows?

do you have VPNs Like what is your profile your risk profile In fact, For any company we can even run a risk profile. You just give us your website your company name. We can run a risk profile. For free…

And then once you purchase a policy they will have some monitoring In most cases they will ping your network watch your servers to see if there's. Evidence or indications of being attacked. Because they want to find out about it as much as you do if not more, because if there is an attack it's going to cost them more than it costs you. So they're going to want to, see what's there…

So that's what you're going find on these, these policies There will be some…integration with a cybersecurity and they're going to provide some of that…

This article, we won't get into detail but it says time and effort to obtain cyber insurance increasing. Well that's true because. The insurance company unliked is buying car insurance where they say what's your name What's your driver's license And they give you insurance or you buy. maybe even business insurance. They're going to ask you what's your address What's your revenues How many employees Boom There's your insurance.

They're going to do a little more research and asking you some questions about your. technical and cyber footprint. Do you have other locations? Do you have work from home people…

Are there nodes lockdown Do you have a. A policy in place if there was an event. And even if the answers are no or not good answers. They're going to be able to decide how to help you improve. Your risk.

Profile but it's gonna take a little more time upfront. For that underwriting. Part of it. That's a good thing. It's not a pain in the neck that you have to jump through hoops.

It's them trying to help you to prevent it Even if you don't get the insurance at least you'll know what your potential risks are So it's going to take a little more time and effort now. On the bad news side. Reinsurers which are the companies that insure the insurance companies are. Starting to Jack up their rates a little bit It hasn't quite hit the retail side yet. But they need to regain profitability What does that mean to you What does that tell you?

Well, it tells you that they're paying out claims there's losses. And sometimes these losses are in the millions of dollars. So. What. Rate increases mean…

It means that the insurance companies guessed on the rates based on what they thought was going to be the number of claims. Apparently the number and the, and the expense of claims the cost of the claims was higher than what they guessed. Over the last few years. So that tells you is that. Cyber damage Cyber losses hacking losses are increasing.

They're more than what everybody thought including the insurance companies. Insurance companies probably had the best read on it because they see all these claims and if they guess wrong that means that the risk is increasing. Example. One set of hackers…

This is very complicated They hacked leak lop at builder. Enterprising or simply lazy cyber criminals are using lock bit to cut corners on ransomware. They found a way. To make doing ransomware easy You don't have to understand all the technical. You know jargon…

You know they, they said make ransomware great again. Right. And this is a way that the hackers are making their life easier It allows them to launch more attacks, you know this is August 28th So this is just three days two days ago. So now the hacks are gonna be even easier That might mean that the insurers even guests even lower than they thought…

So what do you do if you're a business first? Go ahead and get a quote. On cyber insurance it doesn't cost anything. You might have to spend five or 10 minutes answering a few questions. Checking off a few things on a form to find out what your profile is.

But. W a lot of times when you get the quote you're going to find out what your. What's your risks are what your vulnerabilities are. Even if you don't decide to get insurance at least you know, What's your risk. vulnerabilities…

look like for your company you want to know that. Maybe you can fix some of them Maybe you don't want insurance Maybe you just want to try to prevent them or fight back yourself…

If you do have a cyber policy. Make sure that even if you suspect that there is some type of event something fishy Your computer is acting weird getting weird messages whatever it is. That you contact your insurer let them know. It's not necessarily a claim. But by letting them know they might be proactive and take action Most of these big insurance companies Chubb coalition all the big ones, they have a team a response team that look if they find out one of their insureds might have something going on they're going to jump in and try to see what's there to try to prevent it.

Because they don't want to claim any more than you do, right. Let's say you have a $200,000 claim and you have a thousand dollar deductible. You're out a thousand they're out 200,000. So they're, they're more. You know may have more of an incentive to prevent this claim that even you do.

I'm sure you don't want it either Cause it'll be annoying. But let them do their job Most of them have. Defense teams. Response teams that jump in, they're not just waiting for the losses to happen And then just write you a check. They're going to want to try to prevent.

it. You know it's almost like if you have fire insurance there they're a firetruck Right They can help keep this from happening. So when it comes to cyber insurance, Get quotes…

You can contact us You can contact your broker Anybody you want, get quotes answer a few questions, find out what your liability is Most times you can get a free. Risk analysis It could be a three or four page PDF file print out use it at, you know your own. Discretion…

We decide to get insurance Remember you'll also have…a response team some preventive measures. that can augment your it department, but at least get a quote It doesn't hurt. Right It might take some time. You know your CFO or your bookkeeper your accountant your controller might have to answer a few questions Maybe your it person has to. You know, tell somebody what version of windows you have on your server who cares?

Right. At least go that route because it'll put you in the right position…

To at least know what your risk is and you can decide you want to sure Insure over it Do you want to prevent it Do you want to do both…

At least you know where you stand but that's what goes into getting a policy this day and age. And we're finding that a lot of renewal customers a lot of people who are renewing policies. You don't necessarily have to go through all that every time, but it's easier to renew than getting a new policy and look the underwriting. Criteria has gone up underwriting in 2023 is way harder than it was in 2020. So if you already have a policy that's been in existence for a couple of years.

you went through the easier underwriting in 2020. And that carries over. So if you get a policy now even though the underwriting might seem a little bit annoying…

Your renewals will be a lot easier than trying to get a new policy in 25 or 26 And look, a lot of companies and contracts are requiring this Some government agencies If you want to do business with them you have to have cyber insurance. So you want to get ahead of the curve So you don't. Run into bidding on a contract or having a client say yeah I want to…buy this from you or do a deal with you. By the way who's your cyber carrier And then you have to scramble to get a policy Cause it might take, you know a few weeks to get it in place and get it bound. And if your contract is at stake that's going to be a problem And that's even if you get approved or or not being able to shop around, if you start early you can shop around and find out maybe there's lower premiums available or better coverages available.

So. It's a pain in the neck I'm sure As a business owner you have plenty of things you have to do all day long…

Working on getting a cyber policy which right now you don't think you need is probably not on your to-do list for today. But like everything else we do as business owners, planning for the future and planting some seeds is a good thing to do And you can delegate it to somebody Most of the time your general manager your controller has all the information needed to get a quote, at least. so delegated out. And put yourself in a good position to maybe get more contracts. You can even advertise it to your customers We have cyber insurance and it protects you as a customer because it's a third party.

Policy If you get one some policies only cover you some cover your third parties like your vendors your clients your customers. and you can make that a selling tool. To your customers. That you have a cyber policy that protects them and maybe your competitor doesn't have that yet because you know, 15 20% of companies only have cyber insurance. Five years from now It'll be more like 90% You can get ahead.

And make it a selling tool And you can say we've had cyber since 2023 We've had cyber insurance for five years where your competitor may not. Anyways again we're biased We know. That's what we do for a living. You know we're not neutral. Opinion about this you know we have a…

You know we know where our bread is Butter. so take it with a grain of salt but it is something that a lot.