October 14, 2022 | By stephen

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Why Cyber Insurance Isn’t Enough To Protect Your Business

• Cybersecurity

The year 2021 was a particularly busy one for cybercriminals. Cyber attacks surged by 50% year over year. Malicious attackers continue to find new ways to breach networks, and these numbers continue to grow.

In response, businesses are increasingly turning to cyber insurance policies as a cost-effective solution that offers protection against third-party liability arising from data breaches or other cybersecurity threats. But is it enough? The short answer is no; you need more than cyber insurance to protect your business. Cyber insurance shouldn’t be your first line of defense.

What Is Cyber Insurance?

Cyber insurance is a type of insurance that covers damages caused by a cyber attack against a business. Cyber insurance protects companies against the financial costs of a cyber attack, such as:

• Investigating the incident
• Covering monetary loss related to the attack
• Informing customers after a data breach
• Restoring the identities and privacy of compromised customers
• Recovering lost data
• Repairing damage to the IT infrastructure and affected computer systems

A cyber insurance policy is a great way to protect your business if you are the victim of a cyber attack, but it should not be your first line of defense regarding cybersecurity solutions.

Cyber Insurance Is A Reactive Measure

Would you only buy homeowners insurance and not lock your doors? Probably not, and the same goes for cyber insurance. Cyber insurance can help protect your business against expenses related to cybercrime, but it will not secure your IT infrastructure or protect your business’s data and assets.

An external attacker can successfully breach a network’s perimeter and obtain access to internal network resources in 93% of cases. Whether or not you have cyber insurance isn’t enough to ward off these damaging attacks.

What matters the most with cyber insurance are the policy’s fine print details and your own level of risk tolerance. Remember that cyber insurance will not secure your IT infrastructure, protect data or assets, or get your organization back up and running after an attack. Instead, cyber insurance should be viewed as another layer of protection for your business. It’s a reactive layer of protection that can help you in the aftermath of an attack.

The best way to protect your business is to prevent a cyber attack from happening in the first place, which requires being proactive about the security of your business. Having a partner or IT service provider that is knowledgeable in cybersecurity solutions can help you secure your organization, data, and backups. This partnership is essential in taking proactive precautions against cyber attackers.

Proactively Protect Your Business

Cybersecurity is an ongoing battle that you shouldn’t give up on before you even start. Instead, use cyber insurance as an additional measure and integrate it into your overall cybersecurity strategy to better protect your organization against threats.

It’s crucial that you have a cybersecurity partner who can provide the best practices, training, and tools to protect your business against cyber threats. Having a cybersecurity partner that can assess your organization’s security posture and then implement the best possible protection measures will go a long way towards ensuring that your business remains protected against cyber threats.

LeadingIT offers 24/7, all-inclusive, fast and friendly technology and cybersecurity support for nonprofits, manufacturers, schools, accounting firms, religious organizations, government, and law offices with 20-200 employees across the Chicagoland area.