How Businesses Can Protect Themselves From Cyber-Related Losses

Not long ago, Steve Miller used to spend a lot of time educating his clients on EPLI coverage, which has become a staple in insurance programs today. The coverage business owners want to discuss now is cyber liability insurance.

“It’s become a very big risk assessment and risk analysis issue with business owners,” said Miller, a senior vice president with Brown & Brown Northwest Insurance.

Executives know that their business could be hit with a cyberattack or suffer other losses due to systems failures or security incidents. If they don’t have personal experience, they may know a company that has been hit or they have seen news reports on large data breaches, ransomware attacks and other cyber risks.

Businesses seek protection through cyber liability insurance as a result. “Given the exposure to cyber threats, it’s a very inexpensive risk transfer right now,” Miller said.

With $1.8 billion of aggregate capacity in 2018, the cyber insurance market was three times larger than it was in 2015, according to an industry report on how there are more cyber insurance buyers as awareness grows. Researchers found that average pricing for cyber insurance coverage fell by 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2018.