Cyber Liability

18th February 2020

No Longer A Virtual Risk!

In the modern world businesses increasingly rely on email correspondence, internet activity, ecommerce, online banking and other online financial tools,leaving them exposed to the increasing activity of hackers, computer viruses, phishing and electronic identification theft.

The heart of a company is often its server and network. Fraudsters and hackers do not differentiate between a multi million pound company or an emerging company, and given the substantial information available in the public domain, all businesses are at risk. Unauthorised access increasingly involves theft of mobile equipment, desktop servers and laptops and technological advancement only affords even greater opportunities for criminals.

The main areas of concern are:

CYBER LIABILITY, including defamation, libel and slander, impeachment of intellectual property rights and statutory infringements.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY BREACHES, including theft of data, computer viruses, unauthorised access, loss of employee information, the release of confidential information into the public domain and the threat of data extortion.

CONTINUING FINANCIAL INTERRUPTION, including future losses resulting from hackers, errors (human and programming), malfunction of the computer system, sabotage and forensic costs.

Your standard asset and liability insurance policy will normally provide cover for material damage losses, however it will not extend to include cyber and data security claims and many businesses will not have properly addressed this exposure or decided whether to insure or not.

Specialist Insurers offer innovative technology covers to protect businesses against these perils. Your Insurance Broker should be aware of the market availability of covers and be in a position to devise a programme of insurance protection to address the unique risk exposures that individual businesses may face.

At MPW we are able to confidently advise our clients and offer a structured solution to this very real ‘virtual’ risk.

For more information and some graphic examples of cyber and data claims please visit our website at www.mpwbrokers.com